Finally! After many years of being overlooked Dr. Morgentaler will receive the Order of Canada.
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Henry Morgentaler, C.M.
Toronto, Ontario
Member of the Order of CanadaFor his commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations.
My own birth mother found herself pregnant with her seventh child in the late sixties. She had six children in ten years. Even then it was difficult to raise a large family. Clothes were hand me downs, lots of cheap cereals, powdered milk, no money for vacations or treats. Christmas came from the local charity and need was always felt. She had to undergo the indignity of a counsel of doctors called to determine whether she should have the right to terminate this pregnancy. Fortunately they said yes. She had the termination and a tubal at the same time.
My best friend when I was a teen found herself pregnant at age 18. She was unsure if she wanted the termination but her very catholic mother insisted she have it. Later married and pregnant with their second child when faced with a life threatening illness from her pregnancy her very catholic doctor refused to either preform an abortion or refer her to a doctor that would help. He told her it was her responsibility as a woman to carry this pregnancy to term even if it killed her and left her son motherless. She fortunately found other help but the pregnancy was much further along by then as was her chance of dying.
There can be no justice for women if it does not include the right to determine what happens to her body and her future. To deny women access to abortion is to deny half the population rights to self determination. Men can impregnate multiple women and just move on. There is no emotion toll, no physical toll, no monetary toll. Their education, careers, pensions remain unaffected yet this is just the beginning of the litany of things women who choose to be mothers must deal with.
How wonderful that there are men like Dr. Morgantaler who not only recognize these truths but fought for, at personal cost, the right for women to be treated as adults.
“I believe that children should receive love and affection so that they may grow up to become kind and responsible persons. I also believe that the best way to achieve this is to allow women and couples to decide at what time in their life they should bring a child into the world. In a case of unwanted or accidental pregnancy a woman should have the right to choose and obtain an abortion under good medical conditions to protect her life, health and future fertility. I have dedicated the largest part of my professional life as a physician to help women obtain safe abortion in an atmosphere of compassion and empathy. I am proud of the dedicated staff who have helped me achieve this humanitarian objective.” Henry Morgentaler.
I am so freaking happy. I hope the good doctor is told about the incredible outpouring of support there is for him and this long overdue honour.
Do you really want in the Order of Canada a man whom half the country considers (rightly or wrongly) a murderer?
yes
Thank you Henry and Congratulations! Thanks for ‘knowing’ that I have as many rights/choices/options you do as a man. Your awesome for simply getting that. My male partner congratulates you as well!
AR – self-determination – think they’ll ever get it? Nah, and it doesn’t matter, cuz we’ll do it with them and more than likely without them, always. Great post.
Thank you Dr. Morgentaler for your steadfast work to honour women.
We are not just baby-making machines
What is that old saying…?
“If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.”
I have been a supporter of Dr. Morgentaler for decades. Have never found myself in the position of having to make that choice,,,,,but living the life of an unwanted and abused child I gained understanding of how horrific life could be and was as an unwanted and battered child.
To this day, I still feel the yearning when I see a child tenderly cuddled on its mother’s knee, since I never had that joy.
Married, mother of 3, grandmother of 9 and great-grandmother of 1.
@A. Mayer –
A beautiful testimony. Thank you for sharing.
The integrity and the greatness of receiving the Order of Canada has been seriously marred and undermined by naming Henry Morgantaler as a recipient. I would like to add my voice to those who have already spoken out against this and that the decision to award the Order of Canada to Dr. Morgentaler be REVOKED.
Now you think it’s tainted? But you were ok with it when it was awarded to the likes of Brian Mulroney, Conrad Black and not taken back from an abusive priest?
I am pleased that Dr. Morgentaler has received the nomination for the Order of Canada. We are still in the dark ages as far as women being permitted to take charge of their own bodies. As for the outcry of Catholic Bishops, and others, these people should remain silent. Have they forgotten that even The Vatican turned a blind eye when millions of Jews were put to death? The Catholic church has swept under the carpet the sexual and emotional abuses that hundreds of children suffered over many, many years. Now the church is upset that a person is willing to stand up for the rights of women, women who continue to be undervalued and viewed as second class in the Catholic church, and in other religions. When society realizes that males cannot continue to dominate and make females subservient, then we shall all be better off.
The unproven allegatiion that the Vatican turned a blind eye to the Holocaust is complete rubbish. The Chief Rabbi of Rome (and other Jewish leaders) thanked the Vatican and Pope PiusX11 for their help in saving thousands of Jews.
Why the hell should Canada’s Catholic bishops remain silent while Morgentaler’s supporters hail a killer. It’s a free country isn’t it> Get a life or thank God you haver one thanks to the fact you weren/t aborted.
Unproven allegation? Are you sure?
“The Vatican has apologised to Jews on behalf of the entire Roman Catholic community, for failing to speak out against the Nazi holocaust during World War Two.
In his letter accompanying the apology, the Pope said the holocaust remained an indelible stain on the 20th century.
The Vatican’s long-anticipated response to the killing of six million Jews was published in Rome on Monday. ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/65889.stm
The Vatican statement referred to was published in March of 1998.
It says Pope Pis X11 and his representatives saved “hundreds of thousands” of Jews.
Exactly/
Apparently, though not surprisingly you didn’t read the link I provided. The Vatican maintains what you say but it seems they are alone in that.
“But the document fails to explain why Pope Pius never took sides during World War Two by speaking out against the holocaust while it was actually taking place.”
Being Catholic has nothing to do with my opinion that Henry Morgentaler should not be awarded the Order of Canada. How can we justify honouring a man who chooses to kill innocent lives??? I thought this award was given to Heroes. Heroes are people who save lives, not destroy them! It is totally ludicrous that Morgentaler would even be considered a candidate and is an insult for all this award stands for. I know there have been arguments justifying laws on abortion, but no matter how you look at it, the bottum line is, Morgentaler is a murderer and to award him with such an Honour would be a terrible injustice to all mankind, let alone the Canadian people.
@gina F` –
Well you are welcomed to your opinion. However, I fail to see why your religious beliefs should run our country.
Also I find this passage in your bible
“And if men struggle and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
Exodus 21:22-25
The bible is the WORD OF GOD yes? so apparently GOD doesn’t see miscarriage/abortion as a taking of life. Did GOD just need to see 4D ultrasound?