Canada would be very different for women if not for Morgentaler: advocate

TORONTO – An abortion advocate says the country would be a very different place for women if not for the work of Dr. Henry Morgentaler.

Morgentaler, who was born in Poland and became an abortion rights crusader after coming to Canada following the Second World War, died today at the age of 90.

Carolyn Egan, with the Ontario Coalition of Abortion Clinics, says Morgentaler had a huge impact on the lives of women in Canada, bringing them reproductive freedom.

Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, says he is a “Canadian hero,” who saved the lives of countless women.

Morgentaler opened the first abortion clinic in Montreal, followed by more clinics across the country, and fought Canada’s abortion law, which ultimately resulted in the Supreme Court’s landmark 1988 decision declaring it unconstitutional.

Morgentaler’s crusade earned him many opponents, and in reaction to his death today a spokeswoman for the anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition says she hopes Morgentaler repented before his death and that this marks what she called “an end to the killing in Canada.”