Henry Morgentaler

Doctor Henry Morgentaler CM LLD (hc) MD
Morgentaler (right), with NDP Leader Jack Layton in August, 2005.
Born	(1923-03-19) March 19, 1923 Łódź, Poland
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation(s)	Doctor, activist
Spouse	Chava Rosenfarb (1945-1975)

Henry Morgentaler CM (born March 19, 1923, in Łódź, Poland) is a Canadian physician who performs abortions and has been a long time activist who has fought numerous legal battles for the right of women to obtain the procedure.

Early life

Morgentaler was born in Łódź to Golda Nikita and Josef Morgentaler. His father was active in the Jewish Socialist Labour Bund. Following the German capture of Poland, Josef Morgentaler was arrested and killed by the Gestapo. During the Holocaust, Morgentaler lived with his mother and brother in the Łódź ghetto until 1944, when he was detained and sent to Auschwitz. Following his release, weighing just 70 pounds, he accepted a United Nations scholarship that was being offered to Jewish survivors. He went to medical school in Germany while living with a German family that was forced to house him under the programme.

Medical career

Upon graduation Morgentaler refused to go to Israel because he strongly opposed Zionism. He and his wife, Chava Rosenfarb, left Europe in 1950 to travel to Canada where he practised medicine in Montreal. He worked there as a general practitioner for nearly twenty years before his convictions about abortion caused serious conflict with others. On October 19, 1967, he gave public testimony before a Government of Canada committee about his belief that any pregnant woman should have the right to a safe abortion. In 1969 Morgentaler gave up his family practice and began openly performing illegal abortions; at the time, abortion was only legal when performed in a hospital after approbation of a Therapeutic Abortion Committee.

Judicial and political battle

On June 1, 1970, Morgentaler was arrested in Montreal for performing illegal abortions. In 1972 he ran in the Federal Election in the riding of Saint-Denis as an independent, finishing fourth with 1,509 votes. Later in 1973 he claimed to have performed 5,000 illegal abortions. He was acquitted by a jury in the court case, but the acquittal was overturned by five judges on the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1974. He went to prison, appealed, and was again acquitted. In total, he served 10 months, suffering a heart attack while in solitary confinement. Morgentaler first went to the Supreme Court of Canada in an attempt to overturn the country's abortion law in Morgentaler v. The Queen but was unsuccessful.

In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted as part of the Canadian Constitution. Morgentaler was charged again in 1983 in Ontario for procuring illegal miscarriages. He was acquitted by a jury, but the verdict was reversed by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The case was then sent to the Supreme Court of Canada. He was acquitted once again, and the Canadian Supreme Court declared the law he was convicted under to be in violation of the Charter and thus unconstitutional in the case of Morgentaler et al. v. Her Majesty The Queen 1988 (1 S.C.R. 30). This ruling essentially ended all statutory restrictions on abortion in Canada.

In 1983, a man attacked him with garden shears outside of his Toronto abortion clinic. Judy Rebick blocked the attack, and Morgentaler was unharmed.

In 1992, his Harbord Street clinic in Toronto was bombed, although Morgentaler was not physically harmed. In 1993, he won another case before the Supreme Court, R. v. Morgentaler, this time challenging provincial abortion regulations.

In response to the stabbing of Dr. Garson Romalis in 2000, Morgentaler noted that some doctors had stopped doing abortions in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. "For years, we have been living in the shadow of the doctors being killed," said Morgentaler. "This violence is a sign of frustration, rage and moral bankruptcy in the anti-abortion movement."

Morgentaler is currently working to open two private abortion clinics in the Canadian Arctic, so that women who live there do not have to travel vast distances to obtain abortions.

Morgentaler has an estimated gross annual revenue of $11 million from his abortion clinics, according to research undertaken by the anti-abortion group, Respect de la Vie Outaouais and published in the Ottawa newspaper Le Droit on Saturday, October 26, 2002. His annual expenses were not estimated.

Other legal troubles

In 1976, the Disciplinary Committee of the Professional Corporation of Physicians of Quebec suspended Morgentaler's medical license for a year as a result of his conviction for having performed an illegal abortion. According to Catherine Dunphy's 1996 biography of Morgentaler, the committee "commented on 'an attitude which is primarily directed to protecting his fees. No really valid interview is held before proceeding with the abortion. This behaviour confers a mercenary character on the doctor-patient relationship. This committee is incapable of reconciling this behaviour with the humanitarian concern that the accused invoked throughout his defence.' "

The Montreal Gazette previously reported in 1974 that according to police evidence, Morgentaler was re-using disposable vacurettes, against the manufacturer's instructions which stated that they "cannot be re-used" . The Gazette reported that when contacted, Morgentaler stated that earlier model Vacurettes "could occasionally be used more than once", but he insisted that "whether someone uses a Vacurette once or twice has nothing to do with practising good medicine." A 1991 Alberta Report article reports that he now denied having re-used vacurettes, but it also reported that according to The Gazette's lawyers, Morgentaler never took any legal action against that paper .

In 1973, on the basis of Morgentaler's public claims that he had performed thousands of abortions, the Quebec Ministry of Revenue ordered him to pay $354,799 in unpaid income taxes . An out-of court settlement reached a few years later resulted in Morgentaler paying $101,000 instead .

Honours and awards

Morgentaler was the first president of the Humanist Association of Canada from 1968 to 1999. He remains the organization's honorary president. On a number of occasions, he appeared opposite Christian theologians or evangelists on campus to debate the existence of God.

On June 16, 2005 the University of Western Ontario conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree upon Morgentaler; this was his first honorary degree. This decision by UWO's senate honorary degrees committee generated opposition from Canadian anti-abortion organizations. 12,000 signatures were acquired on a petition asking the UWO to reverse its decision to honour Dr. Morgentaler and several protest rallies were held, including one on the day the honorary degree was bestowed. A counter petition, supporting the UWO's decision, gained over 10,000 signatures.

On August 5, 2005 Morgentaler received the Couchiching Award for Public Policy Leadership for his efforts on behalf of women's rights and reproductive health issues.

The Canadian Labour Congress recognized him on May 28 2008 with its highest honour, the Award for Outstanding Service to Humanity.

Order of Canada

Morgentaler was named to the Order of Canada on July 1 2008. He was recognized “for his commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations.”

Pro-abortion groups applauded the decision, saying Morgentaler put his life and liberty on the line to advance women's rights.

Anti-abortion groups strongly criticized the award, saying it debased the Order of Canada.

Media and cultural representations

In 2005, the CTV television network produced a television movie documenting Morgentaler's life and practice.

A famous Montreal Gazette editorial cartoon by Terry Mosher lampooned Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau's proclamation that the debt-ridden 1976 Summer Olympics could no more have a deficit "than a man can have a baby," [4] In the cartoon, an apparently pregnant Drapeau is shown placing a telephone call to Morgentaler.

The alternative rock band Me Mom and Morgentaler used the doctor as the inspiration for its name.

See also

• Abortion in Canada
• Morgentaler v. The Queen (1976)
• R. v. Morgentaler (1988)
• R. v. Morgentaler (1993)

External links

• The Morgentaler Clinic
• Globe and Mail feature article
• CBC Digital Archives - Dr. Henry Morgentaler: Fighting Canada's Abortion Laws
• Supreme Court of Canada, R v. Morgentaler (1988) (1 S.C.R. 30)
• CBC: Abortion law ruled unconstitutional (January 28, 1988)
• Henry Morgentaler Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos