François Lafitte
François Lafitte (3 August 1913—21 November 2002) was a French-born British political activist, social researcher, professor and abortion lobbyist. He was professor of social policy and administration at
In the 1930s, he was a member of the
Background
Lafitte's natural father was John Armistead Collier (1874—1947), an American
Politics
After school, Lafitte was able to receive a privileged higher education at
Lafitte's real break came when his application to work as a research assistant at the
More generally, the Political and Economic Planning think-tank decided to plan the kind of society they would want in Britain after the War. They wanted to redesign the health and social services along state-led
Abortion
With the Conservatives keeping the welfare state in place after the government changed, Lafitte sought out new challenges and was appointed to the University of Birmingham in 1958. He was the dean of his faculty for three years. During this time, he stopped writing about the topics he was best known for and started to focus almost exclusively on birth control and abortion. The Family Planning Association (FPA) appointed him as chair of a working-party to publish a report and in 1963, Family Planning in the Sixties was published.[3][4] Lafitte had touched on the subject briefly in his PEP days, but for the last decades of his career, this topic would become what he is best known for.[3][4] He played a significant role behind the scenes in lobbying for the legalisation of abortion in the United Kingdom and what would become the Abortion Act 1967. He chaired the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) from 1968 to 1988.[3][4] Lafitte had been a founding member of BPAS when it was known as the Birmingham Pregnancy Advisory Service, along with the sexologist Martin Cole and Nan Smith.[5]
Personal life
François Lafitte married Eileen Saville in 1939 and had only one child together, Nicholas Lafitte, who died by suicide in his late 20s.[3] The couple remained together for the rest of their lives, with Eileen dying in 1996.[3]
Bibliography
- The Internment of Aliens (1940)
- Britain’s Way to Social Security (1945)
- Family Planning in the Sixties (1964)
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b "Francoise Delisle (and Havelock Ellis) as Forteans". Joshua Blubuhs. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- ^ a b "Love Among the Anarchists". Paper Darts. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "François Lafitte". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "François Lafitte". The Times. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- ^ "After 1967: The struggle to obtain abortion and the creation of BPAS". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 15 May 2022.