A prisoner of the Lodz Ghetto and Dachau concentration camps, Henry Morgentaler (1923-2013) survived with his brother but lost both his parents to the Nazis. Morgentaler arrived in Montreal in 1950 with his wife, writer Chava Rosenfarb, to study medicine at the Université de Montréal.
In 1967, he delivered his famous brief to the House of Commons Welfare Committee stating that women in Canada should have the right to end their pregnancies without risking their lives—at the time, only available abortions were illegal and often risky. Realizing how great a need there was for safe abortions in Canada, Morgentaler founded his eponymously named Montreal Clinic in east-end Montreal in 1969, the first independent clinic to offer abortions to women in Canada.
Although a limited and specific number of abortions became legal in 1969, Morgentaler’s were not, since he did not demand medical prerequisites for his patients. His clinic was raided multiple times, and he was charged just as frequently. His legal battles were so lengthy and legendary—including multiple arrests, dozens of charges, a 10-month prison stint at Montreal’s Bordeaux jail during which he suffered a mild heart attack, and three jury acquittals in Quebec—that the Canadian Parliament enacted the Morgentaler Amendment, stating that no person can have a jury acquittal overturned by an Appeals court.
Morgentaler was raised within the social milieu of the Jewish Bund of prewar Poland, a secular, socialist and Yiddish cultural environment, which he credits with his commitment to human rights. He was a long-time member and president of the Canadian Humanist Association and its lifetime honorary president, and was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association in 1975.
To this day, his legacy is disputed, and even his nomination to the Order of Canada in 2008 was met with protest.
compiled by federation CJA and Trisha Booth.
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