July
8, 2008
Voice
Your Support For Morgentaler
If you live in Canada you're probably
aware that on July 1st (Canada Day) Dr.
Henry Morgentaler, one of the country's leading pro-choice
activists, was named to the Order of Canada. This
highest honour in the country is bestowed by the Governor
General on the recommendation of a nine person panel.
Morgentaler, a Polish Holocaust survivor,
is a passionate believer that women should have, as
a basic human right, access to safe abortions. He opened
his first abortion clinic in Montreal in 1969, when
the procedure was still illegal in Canada, and as a
result served ten months in Montreal’s Bordeaux
Jail.
He battled tirelessly for women's right
to choose, suffering subsequent arrests, his clinics
enduring several raids and one firebombing in Toronto
in 1992. On January 28, 1988, a day he recalls as the
greatest of his life, the Supreme Court of Canada declared
the nation's abortion law unconstitutional.
“Well-loved children grow into adults
who do not build concentration camps, do not rape and
do not murder,” Morgentaler said when awarded his
first honorary degree in June 2005 at the University
of Western Ontario.
At last, at 85 years of age, Henry Morgentaler
is being honoured by our nation for his dedication to
women's reproductive rights. Doctor's no longer face
possible life sentences for performing abortions. Women
no longer have to appeal to a three doctor hospital
committe to exercise their right to choose or risk injury
undergoing unsafe illegal abortions and serving up to
two years in prison. The right to choose is ours alone
and seeing as
of last Friday, 124 of 163 faxes and emails sent to
the Governor General's office condemned Morgentaler's
inclusion to the Order of Canada, many Canadians
may now be taking this right for granted.
I believe the majority of Canadians support
women's access to safe abortions but right now those
majority voices aren't being heard. This week Shameless
Magazine is asking pro-choice Canadians to turn
up the volume and email, fax or write your support
for Henry Morgentaler's naming to the Order of Canada
to the Governor General's Office.
I got my letter sent off last week. Want
to make your voice heard?
E-mail: info@gg.ca
Phone: 613-993-8200
Toll-free: 1-800-465-6890
Fax: 613-998-8760
Mail: Her Excellency the Right Honourable
Michaëlle Jean
Governor General of Canada
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A1
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