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Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Marie Stopes

She was a British women rights campaigner, palaeobotanist and author. She made significant contributions in planting palaeontology and coal classification. 

Academically, she achieved as by being the first female to be a faculty at the University of Manchester. 

On the October 15, 1880, Marie was born. The parents were Henry Stopes and Charlotte Carmichael Stopes. Her life took a turn when she founded the first birth control clinic with the help of her husband Humphrey Verdon Roe.

One of the significant remarkable invention was her support of stop abortion. Her point was that prevention of conception could be adapted in place of abortion. Because of this, Marie Stopes International began. The organization changed its name to MSI Reproductive Choices in 2020.

1. She was a Researcher

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At Manchester, she studied coal and coal balls. She researched the collection of Glossopteris (Permian seed ferns).

More studies included the stud of Carboniferous coal balls. This she did together with Dr. Francis Oliver.

The motivation to this research was inspired by the importance of coal to the British Empire and its major source of fuel.

Nevertheless, Marie’s research in conjunction with Meredith-Seares Watson found that coal balls formed in situ and the nodules has not been transported as was the case then.

Further, the research concluded that the carbonate in the coal balls washed into the coal swamps from adjacent seas.

2. Stopes was a Lecturer

As early as the age of 23, Stopes was employed by the world of academia.  Her role was lecturing in Paleobotany at the Victoria University of Manchester from 11904 through to 1910.

This gave her the title of being the first female academia at the university of Victoria. However, the lecturing job was being opposed as she was a woman.

Her father’s friend William Boyd-Dawkins, who was by then a board member at the university pushed for her position through the senate. The reason for the opposition was that she could not teach young men.

3. The Publications

Some of her publications included Ancient Plants (1910) Blackie, London. This was famous because it a great achievement as it was the pioneer in introduction to the non-scientists students.

Other publications included her Japanese experiences which she published as a diary called Journal from Japan: a diary record of life as seen by scientist in 1910.

She also published her Japanese experiences as a diary, called “Journal from Japan: a daily record of life as seen by a scientist”, in 1910.

4. First World War Input

Stopes made a great contribution in her studies of coal for the British Government. This ended up in writing of Monograph on the constitution of coal together with R.V. Wheeler. This was in 1918.

He scholar work reduced due to her success on marriage issues ad birth control. Due to this, her last scientific publications were in 1935.

Some of the main contributions she made include the knowledge of the earliest angiosperms. More importantly, the formation of coal balls and the nature of coal macerals.

However, her classification scheme and the terminologies she devised for coal are in use until this date.

5. Message to the Poor

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Marie wrote a message entitled A New Gospel to All Peoples. The message was delivered in an Anglican Bishop’s conference. She talked about the mysteries of man and woman.

The deliberations on sexual union made the Catholic Church oppose the talking about sex in the open. This caused a conflict between the church and the rest of Marie’s life.

Her agenda was to ensure all mothers delivered children who they can cater for financially.

6. The Mother of Family Planning

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Stopes is said to be the first advocate of family planning. This was to help the poor mothers in London to have children who they can manage in all areas.

Together with her husband, Humphrey Roe ad another pioneerof birth control, Margaret Sanger opened a clinic in London.

Hence, Stopes founded the Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress. Later, they opened a free clinic with her husband. The clinic offered mothers birth control training. Her Pro-Race and Racial cervical caps were dispensed as birth control methods were taught.

7. Marie Stopes International

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In the late 1970s, became an Non-Governmental; Organization (NGO) which dealt with sexual and reproductive health.

The first international clinic was at New Delhi, India. The organization has expanded to 37 countries (2019) with 452 clinics. There offices are based in London, Brussels, Melbourne and the United States of America.

8. Opposition on Marie Stope’s Reproductive Health

Sutherland (a Catholic), was challenged by Marie Stopes in public on a debate to end birth control.

The Catholic community mobilized members to support Sutherland while Marie campaigned to raise £10,000. Marie’s victory earned her more clients in her clinic

9. Remembered in a playground Rhyme

he contribution to the public earned her fame that was seen by the many clinics opened internationally.

Of importance to note was the playground rhyme “Jeanie, Jeanie, full of hopes, Read a book by Marie Stopes. But, to judge from the condition, She must have read the wrong edition”.

The generations remember her for helping women manage their families in terms of the number of children one desired to have.

10. Her view on Abortion

Openly, she advocated for zero abortion and even made it a rule for no abortion in her clinics. She pursued those hospitals or institutions that provided abortion services and engaged the police in the fight against it.

In some instances, she prosecuted them in court. Nurses in all her clinics has to sign an agreement never to carry out an abortion in all her facilities.

She suggested the use of contraceptives rather than abortion. This she emphasized was the best option for couples to voluntarily put a perimeter on the number of children they should have.

She did not shy away from accusing those advocating for abortion. At one point, her friend from Avro Manhattan carried an abortion . This warranted her to accuse them of murdering the unborn child.

What was shocking about Marie is that once she contradicted her believe when she wrote a public letter outlining the method of abortion. This happened in 1919 to an anonymous person.

She Simplified the procedure by referring to it as an evacuation of uterus. This was the irony of events because she built up her clinics with an understanding that her mission and vision was use of contraceptives, nothing less.