The Marie Stopes International (MSI) chain of abortion clinics is to change its name in an attempt to break its association with the eugenicist and racist views of the birth control and abortion campaigner.

From Tuesday, the clinics, which operates in 37 countries, will abbreviate their initials and go by the name MSI Reproductive Choices.

Among her writings, Marie Stopes called for new laws that allowed the “hopelessly rotten and racially diseased” to be sterilised and wrote fiercely against interracial marriage. Eugenic beliefs were extremely widespread in the first decades of the last century.

“We’re absolutely not trying to erase her from history, or what she did,” said Simon Cooke, MSI’s chief executive. “For me, she was an acknowledged family planning pioneer, an extraordinary women who broke down barriers … but we really need to look forward and not back. It’s the right moment for us.”

Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood in New York also dropped the name of Margaret Sanger from their abortion clinics due to her similarly racist, eugenicist views.