Morgentaler (right), with NDP Leader Jack Layton in August 2005

"Born in Lodz, Poland, he survived the Holocaust and came to Canada at the end of World War II. Completing his medical studies at the Universite de Montreal in 1953 he opened a family practice in Montreal. As a Humanist leader he promoted the idea that people had a right to control their own sexuality and reproduction, without interference by the state. In 1967 he presented a brief on behalf of the Humanist Fellowship of Montreal to the House of Common’s Health and Welfare Committee, where he urged that Canada’s restrictive abortion law be repealed.

“I have a commitment to human values, to human dignity,
to respect for people who are different,
to social justice, to a richer life for all people,
to democracy in its broadest social and political sense”
Henry Morgentaler - 1965

In the following years he challenged the criminal code by providing safe abortions for women in his clinic in Montreal. He faced several trials and was acquitted each time by a jury; he went to jail for 10 months when a jury acquittal was reversed by a higher court. His belief in a “Women’s Right to Choose” eventually led to a change in the law. Finally, after years of struggle the law against abortion was declared unconstitutional and struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada on January 28th, 1988. He continues to campaign province by province, seeking to provide abortion services to women deprived of access, a struggle which continues to this day."

As a Canadian, as a woman, and perhaps most importantly as a Mom of three young women, I want to say thank you to Dr. Henry Morgentaler. I have never had to face the choice of having an abortion, but thanks to Dr. Morgentaler if I needed to I would have that choice, and that all Canadian women now have that choice in privacy, and with compassion, safety, and dignity.

Dr Morgentaler deserves the Order of Canada for the tremendous work he has done for all Canadian women now, and in the future despite the death threats, from wackos, and bombings of his clinic here in Toronto....he is a hero!

Cheers!
Sue
XOX

Image Credit: Wiki