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  Brighton+5 Global Workshop, Beijing, China. First Asia Regional Clinical Conference, Bangkok, Thailand.   MSI Clinic MSI Clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal   MSI Outreach, Bolivia MSI Board Member meeting with China Family Planning Commission Director and Vice Director Dr Marie Stopes
In 1925, the clinic moved to Whitfield Street in Central London, where it remains today. Dr Marie Stopes and her fellow family planning pioneers around the globe played a major role in breaking down taboos about sex and increasing knowledge, pleasure and improved reproductive health. From the 1920s onwards, Marie Stopes gradually built up a small network of clinics that were initially very successful but by the early 1970s they were in financial difficulties. In 1975 the clinics went into voluntary receivership. The modern organisation that bears Marie Stopes' name was established a year later, taking over responsibility for the main clinic, and in 1978 it began its work overseas in Delhi. Since the late 1970s the organisation has grown steadily and today the Marie Stopes International Global Partnership works in 38 countries and has offices in London, Brussels, Melbourne, Tokyo and Washington DC. Dr Marie Stopes 1880-1958
Dr Marie Stopes 1880-1958 - a remarkable woman If Marie Stopes was alive and working today, she would be seen as a remarkable woman - a passionate pioneer for women's rights, a brilliant speaker and a skilled self-publicist, capable of pulling off extraordinary stunts to attract the media. To really understand her, however, it's important to realise she was a woman ahead of her time. When she became a public figure in the 1920s, England was still emerging from the shadow of Queen Victoria. Women had only just got the vote, very few went to university, modesty prevailed and sexual matters were never discussed. Marie Stopes was far from conventional. Not only did she go to university, but she got a double first, studied in Germany and gained a doctorate. She even went down coalmines to pursue her specialist subject - fossilised plants. As a young girl she said she would spend the first 20 years of her life in science, the second 20 in social projects, and the final 20 years writing poetry - and she did just that. She made her name, however, through her writing and campaigning on family planning services and fought, almost single-handed, to bring women control over their fertility and to allow them to enjoy sex. Her work resulted in the provision of the UK's first family planning clinics, and the foundations of services that are still in place today. Equally importantly, she opened up discussion about sex and changed public opinion at a time when the church, society and the medical establishment were opposed to birth control. A failed marriage However, Marie Stopes might never have got involved in family planning if she hadn't had a disastrous marriage to fellow scientist Reginald Ruggles Gates. They had a whirlwind romance, but the relationship was close to breakdown within a year. Although she was highly intelligent, it only gradually became apparent to Marie that her sex life was not quite right. After studying medical books in various languages in the British Library she realised her husband was impotent and that she was still a virgin. She did not believe in divorce, but took the extraordinary step of turning to the law and having her marriage annulled on the grounds of non-consummation. Married love The humiliating experience drove her to write her first book, Married love. It was a sex manual - the first of its kind in the UK. It opened with these words: "In my first marriage I paid such a terrible price for sex-ignorance that I feel that knowledge gained at such a cost should be placed at the service of humanity… I hope (this book) will save some others years of heartache and blind questioning in the dark." Marie Stopes married again in 1918. Her new husband, Humphrey Roe, a Manchester manufacturing magnate, shared her interest in birth control. He had seen his female workforce suffering from the effects of frequent childbearing and had already tried - unsuccessfully - to establish a family planning clinic. So he was prepared to support her work and paid for Married love to be published. The book was labelled immoral and obscene by the church, the medical establishment and the press, with its claims that women should enjoy sex as much as men. But it was an extraordinary hit with the general public. It sold 2000 copies within a fortnight, and Marie Stopes achieved fame and notoriety overnight. She loved the publicity and used it to further her cause. She even sent copies to the royal family, including Queen Mary - mother of seven. Thousands of women wrote in to thank Marie for her work, and many asked for more information. This is a typical letter: "Could I hear from you personally. I sorely need advice concerning birth control. I have only been married four years and have just given birth for the fifth time and it has made us desperately poor financially. It is through my weakness of body that I become pregnant every single time we submit to marital rights. I would be grateful to the end of my days if you could save me any further distress. Yours very truly..." Married love contained only a brief mention of contraception, but it prompted so many inquiries that Marie went on to write Wise parenthood in the same year, describing family planning methods. The Mothers' Clinic Now firmly set on her path, Marie Stopes opened the first UK birth control centre - the Mothers' Clinic, at 61 Marlborough Road, Holloway, North London. It was a converted house, set between a sweet shop and a grocer's, and was designed by Marie to be homely and welcoming "to mothers or fathers". She and Humphrey financed it. Marie took the unusual step of employing only female nurses and doctors to make women clients feel more at ease - a policy she always maintained. The clinic opened without publicity on 17 March 1921, offering a free service to married women. Its aim was two-fold: firstly to reach the poor and give them access to birth control, secondly to gather scientific data about contraception. The nurses dispensed rubber cervical caps that Marie had designed herself. Nurse Hebbes, a midwife and suffragist, was in charge. She talked to the clients, examined them and showed them how to fit the cap. Marie Stopes was opposed to chemical methods of contraception, famously saying: "Never put anything in your vagina that you would not put in your mouth!". At first the clinic attracted only three women a day, and many were afraid to give their names, but it was a huge and significant step in the face of mounting opposition to Marie Stopes' writings and work. In 1925 The Mothers' Clinic with its growing clientele moved to its present site, 108 Whitfield Street, Central London, where the nurses continued their consultations, provided a mail-order contraception service, and gathered data. Marie expected the highest level of professionalism and dedication from her team, and during the war told them to ignore air-raids and go on fitting contraceptives. The clinic was bombed twice in the Blitz of 1940, but repairs were quickly made and work continued as usual. Marie vs the Catholics Marie had many opponents, including the medical profession and the Anglican Church, but the Catholic Church led the strongest attacks against her. However, she hit back with even more pamphlets and speeches, loving every opportunity to promote her thoughts. The climax came in 1923 when Catholic doctor Halliday Sutherland criticised her in a book, Birth Control. Marie Stopes sued him for libel, lost, won at appeal, then lost at the House of Lords, with the case generating huge amounts of publicity along the way. The final outcome was unimportant - what she cared more about was that everyone in the UK had got to know more about family planning. She continued to take every opportunity to rail against the Roman Catholics, on one occasion chaining a book about Catholic birth control methods and their failings to the font of Westminster Cathedral. In typical style, she took a journalist with her to make sure the stunt got publicity. Growth of the movement Marie Stopes had three passions in her life: birth control, writing poetry and her son Harry, born in 1924. Throughout the 1920s she juggled her family and working life, opening more family planning clinics, including the world's first horse-drawn birth-control caravan. She did everything she could to glamorise her cause, getting showbusiness celebrities and writers to appear at her talks and endorse her campaigns. At fashionable dinner parties she is said to have produced a Dutch cap from her handbag and passed it round the table. She talked endlessly about contraception. By 1930, other family planning organisations had appeared and they joined forces with Marie Stopes to form the National Birth Control Council, which later became the Family Planning Association. But Marie Stopes disagreed with how it should be run and resigned in 1933. Marie continued to open clinics around the UK and set her sights further afield, saying: "I ought to have a clinic in every country in the world." She wrote articles on birth control in Indian newspapers and had clinics affiliated to her in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Her own frustrations Despite her huge successes in helping women enjoy sex and plan their families, Marie became deeply frustrated in her private life. At first Marie and Humphrey were very happy, but after many years of marriage he suggested she should take a lover and they drew up a written contract to that effect. So for the remaining years of her life, Marie Stopes courted a succession of younger men with her husband's consent. While continuing her birth control campaigns, she did as she had planned, spending most of her last 20 years writing acclaimed poetry. In 1958, the year of her death, the Anglican Bishops' Lambeth Conference finally acknowledged the need for birth control, accepting that procreation was not the sole purpose of Christian marriage. By the time Marie Stopes read their statement she knew she was dying of cancer and set her affairs in order, dissolving her Society for Constructive Birth Control. She died in her home on 2 October 1958. The legacy of the remarkable Marie Stopes lives on in the UK and around the world. The modern organisation which bears her name, Marie Stopes International, works in more than 30 countries providing reproductive health services, ensuring that couples have choice, not chance about their family size. Further reading: Marie Stopes and the sexual revolution: June Rose, Faber and Faber 1992 Married love: by Marie Stopes, edited by Ross McKibbin and published by Oxford University Press September 2004 price ￡6.99. |
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