Wendy Savage

Who is Wendy Savage?

Professor Wendy Savage is a British gynaecologist, and advocate and campaigner of women's rights in childbirth and fertility.

Dr Savage read medicine at Girton College, Cambridge. She qualified in 1960 and was the first woman consultant to be appointed in obstetrics and gynaecology at The London Hospital. She has worked in the United States of America, Nigeria, Kenya, and New Zealand. In New Zealand she set up an abortion service before the law was liberalised. She was an elected member of the General Medical Council for more than 16 years. She was shortlisted for the BMJ Group Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

In 1985, she was accused of incompetence by the professor in her department and suspended from her post at the London Hospital Medical College, but she was cleared of all charges and reinstated in 1986 following a high-profile enquiry. A British Medical Journal editorial concluded that a clash of personalities had led to the charges against Dr Savage: "Mrs Savage's strongly held and voiced opinions on women's rights to a say in their method of delivery and in their rights to abortion made her a public and at times controversial figure; rumours of other sources of conflict with her colleagues have ranged from style of dress to private practice." Savage herself wrote about her experiences. Her later book, Birth and Power, revisits the issues which her suspension raised. She is co-chair of the pressure group Keep Our NHS Public.