The abortion chain Marie Stopes International changed its name this month to attempt to distance itself from its founder’s discriminatory eugenic beliefs.
Based in England, the abortion chain has 600 facilities in more than 30 countries where it continues its founder’s discriminatory mission by killing millions of unborn babies in abortions. Inspection reports suggest it has little regard for women’s health or safety either, and it has weathered scandal after scandal involving botched abortions and safety violations.
Now, it appears to be trying to save its image amid heightened concern about racial discrimination.
Its new name is MSI Reproductive Choices, according to the Independent. The abortion chain made an odd choice in continuing to use Marie Stopes’ initials, given that the goal was to distance itself from her.
Stopes, much like Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, was well known for her discriminatory eugenic beliefs against vulnerable populations. Both women believed that certain groups of people, including the poor and people with disabilities, should be sterilized because they were “unfit” to have children. Stopes also advocated against interracial marriage, the AP reports.
In its announcement this week, MSI Reproductive Choices said Stopes’ views were common in the 1920s, but they “are now rightly discredited,” according to the report.
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“Marie Stopes was a pioneer for family planning; however, she was also a supporter of the eugenics movement and expressed many opinions, which are in stark contrast to MSI’s core values and principles,” said chief executive Simon Cooke. “The name of the organisation has been a topic of discussion for many years and the events of 2020 have reaffirmed that changing our name is the right decision.”
Cooke said the new name also reflects their “global vision” to expand abortions across the world within the next 10 years.
Marie Stopes reported 4.8 million abortions and post-abortion care services in 2018 – almost double what it reported in 2012. Its reported income was £296.8 million ($361 million). Cooke is one of the highest paid charity executives in the United Kingdom, according to Civil Society News. In 2018, the abortion group’s annual report showed a 100-percent salary bonus for the executive, doubling his salary to £434,500 ($528,000).
There have been numerous scandals surrounding the pro-abortion group in recent years. In 2016, British health inspectors discovered such alarming health problems inside its British facilities that the government temporarily forced Marie Stopes to stop doing some abortions.
Inspectors reportedly found 2,634 health violations in 2016. In one case, inspectors said they intervened in a situation where a woman with learning disabilities was being pushed into an abortion even though she appeared distressed and did not understand what was going on, The Telegraph reported at the time.
The government later allowed Marie Stopes to resume all abortions after it took corrective action.
But problems persisted. In 2017, a British Care Quality Commission report found the abortion chain botched nearly 400 abortions in a two-month period. It also found evidence that Marie Stopes may be pressuring women to have abortions by incentivizing staff with bonuses.
Marie Stopes also has been accused of doing hundreds of illegal, unsafe abortions in Africa. In 2017, parents and community leaders in Kitui, Kenya were outraged after learning that Marie Stopes workers allegedly came into their children’s school and implanted long-lasting contraceptive devices into girls as young as 14 without their parents’ knowledge or consent. And in 2018, the west African country of Niger ordered all Marie Stopes facilities to close for facilitating illegal abortions.
