Marilyn Valeria Pryor, DSG (née Lobb; 10 August 1936 – 15 March 2005) was a New Zealand conservative Catholic, and anti-abortion advocate who served on the Executive Council of Voice for Life, and served administrative roles for New Zealand's Thomas Stafford Williams. Since the 1990s she worked on, and in her latter years was the editor of, Wellington's Diocese Catholic Newspaper - WelCom. She held an admiration for Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. Pryor was of Ngāi Tahu descent and became New Zealand's first Māori Papal Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1996. She died of motor neurone disease in 2005. Early life (1936–1975) Marilyn Lobb was born in Vivian Street, Wellington in 1936 to her Australian father and European-Māori mother. Through her maternal grandmother's mother Mary Joss, she was a great-great-granddaughter of William and Sarah Cameron, daughter of John Howell and his first wife Kohikohi, a young Kāti Māmoe princess of Raratoka Island. Her maternal grandfather was a grandson of Patrick Gilroy. Lobb went to work after finishing 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 Geoffrey Pryor and left full-time waged employment. Anti-abortion advocate (1975–2005) 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 Council of the Society for Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) - 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 an anti-abortion pregnancy support service, Pregnancy Help, at the same time. Many of her criticisms of abortion were self-published, and are preserved at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington. Mrs Pryor also authored criticisms of New Zealand's ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1984, as