Marie Stopes is known today as a champion of women’s reproductive rights, and her name adorns hundreds of clinics worldwide that provide essential support for women and their choices regarding pregnancy. But she held some horrifying views, arguing forcefully for the compulsory ‘sterilisation of those unfit for parenthood’, particularly the Irish in London. During the 1930s, she wrote lovey poetry to a rising European politician in praise of his policies, which included reform of his country’s population structure using eugenics as part of their radical plans. His name was Adolf Hitler.
