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Marilyn Pryor

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Marilyn Valeria Pryor (née Lobb) (1936–2005) was a New Zealand conservative Catholic, Pro-life advocate, and served on the Executive Council of SPUC (the Society for Protection of the Unborn Child - now Voice for Life), as well as administrative roles for New Zealand's Thomas Stafford Williams, she worked on and in her latter years was the editor of Wellington's Diocese Catholic Newspaper - Wel-com]. She was also honoured for her services to her church through being made a Papal Dame of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, in 1996 (she was NZ's first Maori Papal Dame of the Order of St Gregory). She died of Motor Neuron Disease in 2005.

Early life (1936–1975)

Marilyn Lobb was born in Vivian Street, Wellington, in 1936, to an Australian father and a Maori (Ngai Tahu) mother, although her Maori affiliations with her iwi were not strong, her world view was Maori. She went to work after she finished high school, working at Berger Paints, and the Soil Bureau, while finishing her University Entrance at night school. She attended first year chemistry classes at Victoria University of Wellington where she also served as a lab assistant, as well as an assistant dental technician to the New Zealand Medical Research Council. In 1958, she married Geoff Pryor, and had four children, and left full-time waged employment.

Pro-life advocate (1975–2005)

Marilyn Pryor was a devoted conservative Catholic and strongly supported her church's opposition to abortion in New Zealand. She served on the National Executive of the SPUC (the Society for Protection of the Unborn Child- later renamed Voice for Life (1975–1982) and served as that organisation's National President (1978–1981). Even after she relinquished those roles, she worked ceaselessly to prevent the increased prevalence of abortion in New Zealand, though Abortion Supervisory Committee figures showed a steady increase. In 1984, she authored an official history of the early days of the debate over abortion in New Zealand, The Right to Live (1985). She also founded a pro-life pregnancy support service, Pregnancy Help, at the same time. Many of her criticisms of abortion in New Zealand were self-published, and are preserved at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington.

She also authored criticisms of New Zealand ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1984, as well as criticisms of New Zealand abortion law twenty years after passage of the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act in its final form in 1978, as well as an account of abortion policy in the Netherlands in 2001.

Party Affiliation

Although Mrs Pryor began her political career as a conservative New Zealand Labour Party supporter, due to the pro-life views of the late Prime Minister Norman Kirk in the early seventies, she resigned when his successor, Bill Rowling, stated that he would hold a referendum on the abortion issue if Labour won the 1978 New Zealand General Election, which it did not. She subsequently joined the New Zealand National Party instead, and lost nomination for its Kapiti electorate to Roger Sowry in 1987, who later served as a Cabinet Minister under the administrations of Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley in the nineties. Although her Maori affiliation with her iwi were not strong[citation needed], she did serve on National's Maori Council, and convinced Jim Bolger to make stronger commitment to Maori issues related to the legal status of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Catholic Administrative and Pastoral Roles

In the nineties, Mrs Pryor increasingly turned her attention to Catholic church administrative responsibilities. She was made a Papal Dame of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great in 1996, and helped to establish an administrative pastoral office for Cardinal Thomas Stafford Williams in Wellington, at the same time that she continued her pro-life activities.

Death

In 2004, Mrs Pryor contracted motor neuron disease, which swiftly took hold. She died on 15 March 2005, aged 68, at her home in Paramata, she is survived by her husband Geoff, and her four children. Today, her book, The Right to Live, forms much of the historical content of a New Zealand pro-life information website, run by the New Zealand Life Charitable Trust.

Bibliography

  • Marilyn Pryor: The Right to Live: The Abortion Battle of New Zealand: Auckland: Haelen Books: 1985: ISBN 0-908630-23-9
  • Marilyn Pryor (ed): Beyond Price: Collected Thoughts on Respect for the Value of Human Life: Wellington: SPUC: 1979.
  • Marilyn Pryor: The Radical Feminist Agenda is Overturned: Auckland: Women for Life: 1984.
  • Marilyn Pryor: A Funny Thing Happened- An Alternative Report on the 1984 Women's Forums: Paramata: M.Pryor: 1985.
  • Marilyn Pryor: Your Slip is Showing: A Critique of Induced Abortion in New Zealand 1976-1983: A Report Prepared for the Abortion Supervisory Committee by Janet Sceats: Paremata: M.Pryor: 1986.
  • Marilyn Pryor: Abortion Aftermath: Paremata: M.Pryor: 1987.
  • Marilyn Pryor (ed): Abortion Revisited: A Review of New Zealand's Abortion Laws on the Twentieth Anniversary of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act: Wellington: SPUC: 1998.
  • Marilyn Pryor: Abortion in the Netherlands: Why Holland has the Lowest Abortion Rate in the Western World: Wellington: M.Pryor: 2001.
  • Life Charitable Trust [1]
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