Abortion crusader Henry Morgentaler dead at 90
Posted May 29, 2013 1:21 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Abortion rights crusader Henry Morgentaler 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 of 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, protests and legal battles followed until Jan. 28, 1988, when the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s abortion law as unconstitutional.
In an interview with The Canadian Press in 2004, Morgentaler said his five-year stay in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau prepared him for his showdown with Canada’s legal system.
Tributes poured in on social media with Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne, saying, “Our country has lost a man of great courage, conviction and personal bravery. Thank you, Dr. Henry Morgentaler.”
[View the story “Reaction to death of abortion crusader Henry Morgentaler” on Storify]
