Vera Houghton, Baroness Houghton of Sowerby, CBE (née Travis; 18 October 1914 – 30 November 2013) was a British women's health campaigner, chair of the Abortion Law Reform Association and founder of the Birth Control Trust.

[1] Goughton was born in London on 18 October 1914[2] and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, Acton.

[3] Following this, she continued to campaign for women's reproductive rights by founding the Birth Control Trust, which pushed for universally free contraceptives.

She also became active in the Family Planning Association, becoming its chair in 1973, with birth control becoming free available on the NHS in 1974.

[4] In 1939, she married Douglas Houghton, the founder and general secretary of the Association of Officers for Taxes, where she had worked since 1934.