Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts
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The Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (NARCA) was an association set up in the United Kingdom to lobby against certain laws that were set up giving the police what were seen as overly severe and unfair powers over women.

Timetable of events:

• 1840s: Upsurge in concern about prostitution in the UK.
• 1857: Royal Commission report on the health of the army
• 1862: Report on the level of venereal disease in the Armed Forces
• 1864, 1866, 1869: The Contagious Diseases Acts (CD Acts) were passed.
• 1869: At a Social Sciences congress, these Acts were condemned. The National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act (NARCDA) and the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (NARCA) were founded.
• 1 Jan 1870: NARCA published in the Daily News a protest against the Acts, known as the Ladies' Protest. Notable signatories among 124 women were Florence Nightingale, Josephine Butler, Mary Carpenter, Lydia Becker and Harriet Martineau. The treasurer was Ursula Mellor Bright.
• 1871: Membership reached 1400 in 57 branches. Executive committee members included Helen Blackburn, Mary Estlin, Helen Priscilla McLaren, Mary Merryweather, Elizabeth Nichol, Marion Kirkland Reid and Eliza Wigham.
• 1886: With the repeal of the The CD Acts, NARCA focused on demanding equal moral standards between the sexes and became the Ladies National Association for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice and for the Promotion of Social Purity.
• 1915: NARCA amalgamated with the British, Continental and General Federation for the Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution and became the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene

External links

• Records of the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts