Margaret Pyke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Margaret Amy Pyke (1893–1966) was a British birth control advocate and family planning pioneer. A founding member of the British National Birth Control Committee (NBCC), later known as the Family Planning Association (FPA), she succeeded Lady Gertrude Denman as chairman of that organization in 1954. She was also a member of the British Eugenics Society. Among other publications and articles, she wrote "Crypto Eugenics in The Empire" and "Family Planning: An Assessment" (Extracted from The Eugenics Review. Vol 55 No 2. July 1963. Publication Date: 1963)In "Family Planning : An Assessment" Pyke stated "How should we tackle the problem of the Roman Catholic Church?" Pyke also claimed in the same article that there were "Allegedly 300 abortions every day in this country". Thus she was claiming there were approximately 109,500 abortions every year in 1963 (before abortion was legalised by the Abortion Act 1967). This is surprising as the number of abortions in the UK in 2003 was 181,600 according to the Department of Health statistics.

[edit] Family life

Born Margaret Amy Chubb in 1893, she married Geoffrey Pyke in the late 1918. They had one son, David Pyke, who graduated from medical school in the mid-1940's and went on to become one of the leading experts on diabetes. Her husband committed suicide in 1948.

[edit] Legacy

The Margaret Pyke Memorial Trust is a charity which funds training and research in the field of sexual and reproductive health. The Trust was established in 1966 by Lady Jean Medawar and Pyke's son David Pyke.

The Margaret Pyke Centre is the hub of a network of contraceptive clinics in London. The Centre was designed by Jane Drew and opened in 1969 by the Duke of Edinburgh at the invitation of Lady Medawar.

[edit] References

 This biographical article about an activist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.