17 March 1921: The first family planning clinic opens

On this day in 1921, Britain's first family planning clinic was opened in north London by women's rights campaigner Marie Stopes.

That nagging Malthusian fear that first arose in the early 1800s lingered on into the 20th century. There were many in Britain, who a hundred years later, still feared the country's burgeoning population would one day outstrip the nation's resources. But it wasn't population growth that was the problem, per se. After all, a rising birth rate was good for the economy. Rather, it was that the “wrong sort of people” were doing most of the breeding: the poor, uneducated working class. And that, it was widely believed, would weaken Britain's genetic make-up.

In Married Love, published in 1918, scientist and women's rights campaigner Marie Stopes promoted the idea that sex should be enjoyed for its own sake between spouses. She championed the use of contraceptives as a way of liberating women, preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

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