Morgentaler: Order of Canada to be Received by Abortionist

Morgentaler: Order of Canada to be Received by Abortionist

One of Canada’s most controversial men will now be receiving the country’s highest honour. Henry Morgentaler, born in Lodz, Poland on March 19, 1923, and survivor of the holocaust, will be receiving the Order of Canada in 2008.

Morgentaler was a Jew during the reign of Hitler. His father was taken to a Nazi detention camp where he was tortured and killed, and his mother, brother, and he were shipped to Auschwitz where they were forced to work for the Nazis. Although he and his brother survived and went on to live long lives, his mother met her fate in a gas chamber.

After the Nazis were overthrown, the United Nations offered scholarships at German Universities to the Jews. Morgentaler took advantage of this, and obtained his degree in medicine. In 1950, he and his wife, Chava, left Europe for Montreal. He had no specialization, so he set up a family practice and it seemed that life was good for this man who had been given a second chance.

It wasn’t long before Morgentaler became a member of Humanist Fellowship of Montreal. The organization is an anti-religious group that promotes reason, critical thinking and justice. It also promotes the termination of life for unborn children, as was made clear by Morgentaler’s plea, on behalf of the Fellowship, to a federal government committee in 1967 to legalize abortions. At the time, his efforts were in vain, and the prohibition of abortion remained the same. It did, however, bring numerous pregnant women to his office begging him to abort their unborn children.

In 1968, Morgentaler performed his first illegal abortion on a close friend’s daughter, and by 1969 he had given up his family practice and had begun to openly perform illegal abortions. It seems that this survivor of genocide had forgotten the second chance that Providence had allowed him, as he coldly endeavoured to wage war on Canada’s unborn.

Morgentaler was first arrested in 1970 for performing illegal abortions. He was acquitted by a jury made up overwhelmingly of men (a sole woman sat on the panel), but this verdict was overturned in 1974 by the Quebec Court of Appeal. Dr. Morgentaler was sent to jail and his license to practice medicine was suspended.

This was certainly not enough to dissuade the doctor, who claimed the freedom of women to be his inspiration (although the millions of dollars that his abortion practices were grossing annually were no doubt a bit inspiring as well). By 1988, the Canadian prohibition of abortion was lifted.

Bravo, Dr. Morgentaler! Canada is now left with a law allowing unregulated abortion. Canadian women, and any other women wishing to venture to Canada to take advantage of the current legal situation, are now free to receive abortions at any stage in their nine months of pregnancy.

Hundreds of thousands of abortions are now performed in Canada yearly, with a large percentage performed in Morgentaler’s clinics. Since the Order of Canada is bestowed upon those who have enriched the lives of the citizens and made a positive difference, could there be anyone more deserving than Henry Morgentaler, saviour of women, eliminator of unwanted infants? Is it possible that one of those unborn children, given the opportunity, could have changed our world someday, earning for itself the right to this honour? It is unfortunate that this question must linger, unanswered, forever.