Alice Mary Bush (née Stanton, 7 August 1914 – 12 February 1974) was a pioneering New Zealand female physician, paediatrician and activist for family planning services and abortion access.
[2] To take up the appointment she had to obtain permission to live at home in Mountain Road as there was no suitable accommodation at the hospital for female staff.
[1] He specialised in parasitology, infectious diseases and the treatment of allergies and asthma and was on the medical staff of Auckland's Truby King Karitane Hospital and Mothercraft Care facility.
[1] From 1947 to 1950 she lived in London, where she served as a doctor at the Great Ormond Street Hospital For Sick Children and studied for a Diploma in Child Health.
She joined a study group formed by Douglas Robb and was co-author of a document that recommended A National Health Service (1943) for New Zealand.
[1][2] She was active in a number of other organisations which supported women and children or other health issues: Zonta Club of Auckland, the National Council of Women, Playcentre Association, Parents Centre, New Zealand Speech Therapists Association, the Auckland Asthma Society[2] and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
[6] In the late forties, Bush also became involved with the New Zealand Family Planning Association, helping to provide respectability to an organisation that still proved controversial, given its role in publicising and distributing contraception.
Over time, Bush gradually radicalised her position and became one of the founders of the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand.
She believed a child's early emotional and physical environment were crucial to improve society and that sub-optimal health in children was problematic.