‘Offering an Abortion as Part of Contraception’: A Family Planning Research Journey

In this post Susan Birch of the University of Winchester discusses her ongoing research and resources at the Wellcome in London, supported by the EHS Research Fund for Graduate Students.

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My PhD examines the work of the Family Planning Association in Birmingham and Winchester from 1945-1955. The research focuses on the contribution of women that worked at the two clinics and these included women in leadership roles, doctors and middle management and nurses and voluntary workers. The focus on different levels of women allows a fuller understanding of the work undertaken by the clinics and the women’s contributions to come to the fall. The thesis also addresses the support that the clinics received and the resistance from certain individuals who objected to family planning. One of the challenges has been the sources, particularly individuals who supported or challenged family planning, as there are often patchy records or missing documentation. The EHS Research Fund has allowed me to visit the Wellcome, London to find additional material on Birmingham and Winchester and books related to family planning.

In this post I will focus on one of the most useful books for the Birmingham clinic- Abortion Law Reformed by Keith Hindell and Madeline Simms. The book contains information on Hugh McLaren, a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University of Birmingham who led doctors’ anti-abortion stances in Birmingham.

Hugh McLaren held a strong anti- abortion viewpoint.  He was a member of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) founded in 1966 to oppose the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill in 1966 (later the Abortion Act of 1967). Subsequently, the SPUC supported many of the Abortion Amendment Bills in the 1970s and 1980s. Hindell and Simms state that McLaren regularly appeared on the SPUC platforms to condemn the abortion bill, even stating that he would emigrate if it was passed.  He criticised Family Planning Association experts by arguing that the organisation was giving abortions to women as contraception.

Although this research is later than the time period of my thesis, 1945-1955, it has made me more widely consider the support and challenges that the Birmingham and Winchester clinics faced. Mclaren worked at the University of Birmingham during the 1940s and 1950s and I have therefore looked at university records to find records. The Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham, holds records on Hugh McLaren including reference to him within the papers of Raymond Prestly (University of Birmingham Principal and Vice Chancellor). The EHS Research Fund allowed me to visit the Cadbury Research Library alongside the Wellcome.

At the Wellcome I have also consulted the files of Alfred Glucksmann, as they mention Hugh McLaren during the 1940s and 1950s and the campaign materials of SPUC. Due to Hindell and Simms’ comments on the work of McLaren in campaigns and platforms for the SPUC I decided to explore these resources. They proved extremely useful as I could trace the work of McLaren.

These resources allowed me to examine colleagues of McLaren to address their support or opposition to family planning. For Winchester, I was able to search for other organisations that were pro-motherhood such as the Mothers’ Union. The Mothers’ Union was instigated in Winchester in 1876. Following the 1908 Lambeth Conference where Anglican bishops viewed family planning as hostile to national welfare the Mothers’ Union adopted an anti-birth control resolution. There is a Mothers’ Union file as part of the Family Planning Association collection at the Wellcome which contained letters, booklets and correspondence. I could therefore research the relationship between the two organisations and the extent to which the Mothers’ Union objected to the Family Planning Association.

The EHS Research Fund has enabled me to access books and archival material that I would not have otherwise been able to. This has provided invaluable as I have been able to see the connections the Family Planning Association had and the challenges it faced. I have focused on just one book in this blog, Abortion Law Reformed, and this has created new research material. It has not only greatly benefited the PhD but also my career progression. I have started to think about publishing and potentially creating an article on support and opposition to family planning. I am indebted to the Economic History Society for their support.

To contact the author:

Susan Birch

s.birch.18@unimail.winchester.ac.uk

University of Winchester