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2. Henekh "Henry" Morgentaler[1] CM (March 19, 1923 – May 29, 2013), was a Polish-born Canadian physician and abortion rights advocate who fought numerous legal battles aimed at expanding abortion rights in Canada. As a Jewish youth during World War II, Morgentaler was imprisoned at the Łódź Ghetto and later at the Dachau concentration camp.
- Education and Early Career
- The First Clinics and Court Cases
- R v. Morgentaler
- Advocacy and Legal Challenge
- Retirement and Death
- Public Response
- Honours and Awards
The son of Jewish socialist activists killed in the Holocaust, Morgentaler survived Auschwitz and Dachau, arriving in Canada in 1950 (see Canada and the Holocaust). He completed his medical studies in 1953 at the Université de Montréal and began a general practice in medicine in Montreal in 1955 once he had been granted citizenship. As president of...
When Morgentaler appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Health and Welfare in 1967, it was illegal to perform abortions. In the same year, Pierre Trudeau, who was then Justice Minister, introduced an omnibus bill that would reform the Criminal Code. In addition to decriminalizing homosexuality, the bill also decriminalized the distribution ...
Morgentaler and his colleagues appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which struck down the abortion law in early 1988 on the basis that it conflicted with rights guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In particular, the Court found that the abortion law (Section 251 of the Criminal Code) violated Section 7 of the Charter. As ...
Morgentaler continued his campaign for women’s reproductive rights, travelling across Canada on speaking engagements and fundraising tours. He also established clinics across the country to provide abortion services and to test federal and provincial law. Morgentaler took some provincial governments to court over the closure of his clinics in those...
In 2006, Morgentaler retired from active practice, although he continued to supervise operations at his remaining clinics. He died in Toronto on 29 May 2013 of heart failure. Around the time of his death, there was considerable pressure from social conservatives and pro-life advocates to re-open the abortion debate in Canada.
Public response to Morgentaler’s death reflected the controversy about abortion more generally. While some praised Morgentaler as a hero, others condemned him as a murderer. In the past, threats were made against his life, and his Toronto clinic was firebombed in 1992. In 2005, the University of Western Ontario awarded Morgentaler with an honorary ...
Humanist of the Year, American Humanist Association (1975)Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Western Ontario(2005)Member, Order of Canada(2008)Lifetime Achievement Award, Humanist Association of Canada (2008)May 30, 2013 · Dr. Henry Morgentaler delivers a victory sign as he leaves the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa on Jan. 28, 1988. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in his favour and struck down anti-abortion laws.
Morgentaler decision was not repealed or amended. Reason and justice had sided with the pro-choice movement, and legally-sanctioned, fully-funded abortion became a part of Canadian law and medicine. Next: Access After 1988. [1] From Makin, Kirk. “Abortion law scrapped; women get free choice.”. The Globe and Mail. Friday, January 29, 1988.
May 30, 2013 · Morgentaler, surrounded by his family, died at his Toronto home on Wednesday at the age of 90. His legacy, not least of which is decriminalized abortion in Canada, will live on. So will the pro ...
May 29, 2013 · Morgentaler's legacy. Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who led the abortion movement in Canada, has died at age 90, more than four decades after breaking the law at the time and opening the country's first ...
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Oct 29, 2021 · 10/29/2021. Mathieu-Robert Sauvé. Hero to some, murderer to others, Dr. Henry Morgentaler was the man who changed Canada’s abortion law. Henry Morgentaler (1923-2013) was a Polish Jew who survived internment at Auschwitz and Dachau before emigrating to Canada. After completing his Doctor of Medicine at Université de Montréal in 1953 and ...
