This is an archived article and the information in the article may be out of date. Please check the history timestamp to see when it was last updated.
LONDON (AP) – One of Britain’s leading family planning organizations is changing its name to distance itself from the troubling views on eugenics and race of birth control pioneer Marie Stopes.
Marie Stopes International, which provides abortion and contraceptive services, said it will be known as MSI Reproductive Choices starting Tuesday.
The change is “a clear signal that we neither endorse nor condone the views of Stopes,” a women’s rights activist who founded Britain’s first birth control clinic in London in 1921.
The modern organization was founded in 1976 when Dr. Tim Black saved the financially troubled Marie Stopes clinic from closing. The organization now operates more than 600 clinics around the world.
Stopes supported eugenics, the now-discredited movement to improve the human race through selective reproduction. She opposed interracial marriage and advocated the sterilization of people deemed unfit for parenthood.
Simon Cooke, CEO of MSI, said: “Marie Stopes was a pioneer in family planning; However, she was also a supporter of the eugenics movement and expressed many opinions that are in stark contrast to MSI’s core values and principles.”
Cooke said the name change had been discussed for years and this year’s global Black Lives Matter protests “have reconfirmed that changing our name is the right decision”.
Comments are closed.