MONTREAL – A group prayer for the soul of Dr. Henry Morgentaler is being organized in the place where the physician’s national quest for abortion rights began.

A pro-life group’s president says members will offer prayers for Morgentaler — even though they consider him one of the biggest criminals in Canadian history.

Georges Buscemi of the Quebec Life Coalition says they will hold the vigil for their longtime foe because their ethos is about respecting human life.

Buscemi says the prayer will take place in a park across the street from the Morgentaler Clinic in Montreal — the city where he began his practice and his legal battles, which ultimately wound up before the Supreme Court.

Members of the pro-life group stage small, 40-day protests against abortion in the park twice a year. Morgentaler’s original suburban clinic moved to the current downtown site two decades ago.

Buscemi says members will also pray for an end to abortion and for more people to realize that the procedure involves taking a life.

He says Morgentaler’s crusade is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in Canada.

Morgentaler died Wednesday in Toronto at the age of 90.