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Obituary
Obituary
Vera Houghton
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  1. Dilys Cossey, OBE, Hon FFSRH
  1. Former Secretary ALRA and Birth Control Campaign; Former Chair FPA, Brook Advisory Centres and Population Concern/Interact Worldwide; London, UK; dilys.cossey@btopenworld.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/jfprhc-2014-100905

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    Vera Houghton (Lady Houghton, CBE), who died on 30 November 2013 at the aged of 99, was a birth control pioneer and one of the most powerful national influences on family planning and abortion legislation, Yet, because of her intense dislike of personal publicity, she was rarely recognised as such. As the first Executive Secretary of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) (1949–1959), Chairman of the UK Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) (1963–1970), founder of the Birth Control Campaign and Birth Control Trust in the 1970s, and National Council member (1968–1975) and Vice-Chairman (1973–1975) and subsequently Vice-President of the Family Planning Association (FPA), she laid the legal foundations for the national provision for the family planning and abortion care that we know today and the international structure for developing and supporting family planning policy and services worldwide.

    She was born Vera Travis in Southall, Middlesex, UK on 14 October 1914. Vera went to Haberdashers’ Aske's School in Acton and subsequently attended Kerr Sanders Secretarial College in Piccadilly. In 1934 she went to work for the Association of Officers for Taxes, initially as a ‘dogsbody’ but then as secretary to the editor of the journal, Taxes. …

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