Marilyn Pryor

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.

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.

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.

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