Dr. Henry Morgentaler dead at age 90
Posted May 29, 2013 11:21 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO (NEWS1130) – Henry Morgentaler, a doctor who became a crusader for abortion rights in Canada, has died. He was 90.
Carolyn Egan with the Ontario Coalition of Abortion Clinics says she spoke with members of Morgentaler’s family, who told her he died early this morning. She was told he was surrounded by family and it was a peaceful death at his Toronto home.
Morgentaler, who was born in Poland and came to Canada after the Second World War, emerged in 1967 as an advocate for the right for women to have abortion on demand — a polarizing issue in Canada.
Three years later, Morgentaler opened the first abortion clinic in Montreal, followed by more clinics across the country.
Pro-life activists targeted the clinics and rallies, and protests and legal battles followed until Jan. 28, 1988, when the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s abortion law as unconstitutional.
Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, calls him a “Canadian hero,” who saved the lives of countless women.
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.”
In 2004, Morgentaler told the Canadian Press his five-year stay in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau prepared him for his showdown with Canada’s legal system.
He was awarded the Order of Canada in 2008.
