Margaret Sparrow

{{Short description|New Zealand medical doctor, activist and author}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Dame Margaret Sparrow

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|DNZM|MBE|size=100%}}

| image = Margaret Sparrow (cropped).jpg

| image_size = 190px

| alt =

| caption = Sparrow in 2014

| birth_name = Margaret June Muir

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1935|06|26|df=y}}

| birth_place = Inglewood, New Zealand

| death_date =

| death_place =

| spouse = {{marriage|Peter Charles Methven Sparrow|1956|1982|end=d.}}

| children = 2

| known_for = Campaigning for reproductive rights

}}

Dame Margaret June Sparrow {{post-nominals|country=NZL|DNZM|MBE}} (née Muir, born 26 June 1935) is a New Zealand medical doctor, reproductive rights advocate, and author.

Early life, family, and education

Sparrow was born in Inglewood on 26 June 1935 to Daniel James Muir and Jessie Isobel Muir (née McMillan),{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alister |last2=Coddington |first2=Deborah |authorlink1=Alister Taylor |authorlink2=Deborah Coddington |title=Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand |year=1994 |publisher=New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa |location=Auckland |isbn=0-908578-34-2 |page=345}} and was educated at Waitara District High School and New Plymouth Girls' High School.{{cite web|url=http://www.ccdhb.org.nz/hhist/staff/SparrowMJ_N.html |title=Margaret June Sparrow profile |publisher=Capital & Coast District Health Board |accessdate=17 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203233954/http://ccdhb.org.nz/hhist/Staff/SparrowMJ_N.html |archivedate=3 February 2016 }} She went on to study at Victoria University College from 1953 to 1955, graduating BSc; the University of Otago from 1957 to 1963, from where she graduated MB ChB; and the University of London, where she completed a Diploma in Venereology in 1976.

In 1956, she married Peter Charles Methven Sparrow, and the couple went on to have two children. Peter Sparrow died in 1982.

Career

Sparrow started her career in health working at the student health centre at Victoria University of Wellington in the late 1960s. At the time, the clinic would only allow contraception to be given to married couples, and she had to go against the wishes of the director of the clinic to put up an information display about contraception.{{cite web|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/26998/alice-bush-and-margaret-sparrow|title=Alice Bush and Margaret Sparrow|publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage|work=Te Ara|accessdate=10 June 2014}}

While working at the clinic, student demand for contraception led to her introducing the morning-after pill and helping students to get abortions.{{cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/the-wellingtonian/7921746/Sex-drugs-and-country-dancing|title=Sex, drugs and country dancing|work=The Wellingtonian|date=8 November 2012|accessdate=10 June 2014}} She worked as a medical officer at Student Health until 1981. Between 1977 and 1999 she worked as a visiting venereologist at Wellington Hospital.

Sparrow was the president of the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand from 1975 to 1980, and again from 1984 until 2011.{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10715975|title=Dame Margaret steps aside from abortion reform group|work=The New Zealand Herald|date=30 March 2011|agency=NZPA|accessdate=10 June 2014}}

She is a Director of Istar Ltd, a not-for-profit company that imports the abortion pill mifepristone from France. The pill was approved for use in 2001, and allowed women to have medical — rather than surgical — abortions for the first time.{{cite web|url=http://www.alranz.org/aboutus/Margaret.html|title=Past President, Dame Margaret Sparrow|publisher=ALRANZ|accessdate=17 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074052/http://www.alranz.org/aboutus/Margaret.html|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}} No other pharmaceutical company was interested in importing the drug.

Views

In 2015, Sparrow stated that New Zealand's abortion law was out of date and should be reformed:{{cquote|Our [abortion] law is so old, it’s creaking at the seams ... It was devised at a time when only surgical options were there, people didn’t even dream of having a medical abortion pill you could take.{{cite news|url=http://salient.org.nz/2015/08/the-golden-speculum|title=The Golden Speculum|work=Salient magazine|date=16 August 2015|accessdate=17 August 2015|author=Mulligan, Jayne|location=Wellington}}}}

She is also critical of the way the current abortion system forces women to claim they need abortions on the grounds of a danger to mental health:

{{cquote|You have to have grounds for an abortion, and in New Zealand 98 per cent of the grounds are mental health, which I think is an absolute farce. It’s just ticking boxes, and just putting people into categories, and just pretending that… having an abortion will be for the sake of your mental health. Well, I think that’s all just barriers that are put up.}}

Honours and awards

In the 1987 Queen's Birthday Honours, Sparrow was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to medicine and the community,{{London Gazette |date=13 June 1987 |supp=4 |issue=50950 |page=32}} and in 1993 she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal. In the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours, she was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to medicine and the community,{{cite web | url=https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/queens-birthday-and-golden-jubilee-honours-list-2002 | title=Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee honours list 2002 |date=3 June 2002 | publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet | accessdate=9 January 2018}} and in 2009 she accepted redesignation as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit following the restoration of titular honours by the New Zealand government.{{cite web | url=https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/special-honours-list-1-august-2009 | title=Special honours list 1 August 2009 |date=1 August 2009 | publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet | accessdate=9 January 2018}}

The family planning clinic in Wellington is named after Sparrow.{{cite web|url=http://www.familyplanning.org.nz/our_clinics/find_a_clinic/wellington/margaret_sparrow_clinic|title=Margaret Sparrow Clinic - Wellington|publisher=Family Planning New Zealand|accessdate=10 June 2014}} Sparrow was a keen collector of contraceptive devices, which were later donated to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.{{Cite Q| Q106839624 }} In 2015–16, Te Papa used them as the core of an exhibition on contraception.[http://channel.tepapa.govt.nz/?s=dame+margaret+sparrow The Dame Margaret Sparrow Collection], tepapa.govt.nz; accessed 21 March 2017.

Publications

Sparrow, [http://vup.victoria.ac.nz/abortion-then-and-now/ Abortion Then & Now: New Zealand Abortion Stories From 1940 to 1980] (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2010); {{ISBN|9780864736321}}
Sparrow, [http://vup.victoria.ac.nz/rough-on-women-abortion-in-nineteenth-century-new-zealand Rough on Women: Abortion in Nineteenth Century New Zealand] (Wellington, VUP, 2014); {{ISBN|9780864739360}}
Sparrow, [http://vup.victoria.ac.nz/risking-their-lives-nz-abortion-stories-1900-1939/ "Risking their Lives: NZ Abortion Stories 1900-1939"] (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2017); {{ISBN|9781776561636}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074052/http://www.alranz.org/aboutus/Margaret.html Profile] on the New Zealand Family Planning website
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160203233954/http://ccdhb.org.nz/hhist/Staff/SparrowMJ_N.html Profile] on the Capital and Coast District Health Board website
[http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2602322/margaret-sparrow-rough-on-wimmin Interview] on Radio New Zealand National with Wallace Chapman

Category:Living people

Category:Reproductive rights activists

Category:People from Inglewood, New Zealand

Category:Dames Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni

Category:Recipients of the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993

Category:New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire

Category:University of Otago alumni

Category:Alumni of the University of London

Category:New Zealand abortion-rights activists

Category:New Zealand women activists

Category:21st-century New Zealand women medical doctors