Saturday, October 11, 2008
Abortion rights leader honored in Canada
3 comments
Seriously, why is Canada so much cooler than the U.S. sometimes? Yesterday in Quebec, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, an abortion rights leader of almost 40 years, received the Order of Canada, which is the highest civilian honor. Dr. Morgentaler first became a prominent pro-choice figure in 1969 when he opened an illegal abortion clinic in Montreal, which consequently led to his time in jail. But once out, he effectively led the fight for legal abortions in Canada, which were granted in 1988.A quote from Dr. Morgentaler on his website:
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.
He well deserves the honor.
Posts
October 12, 2008 at 11:46 PM
That's so awesome! *claps*
October 13, 2008 at 11:15 PM
While I agree that it's really great that Canada has taken this step - we're not perfect. Our current PM (who hopefully will not win another election tomorrow) is not a supporter of abortion rights. It hasn't been an issue as of late since his super far-right party merged with the slightly less far-right party - and he's learned to keep his mouth shut.
But when the United States does something dumb, more often than not, Canada stupidly repeats the mistake. We tend to be on the same roads the US is on, just a little further back.
But I was really glad to hear about Dr. Morgentaler's Order of Canada as well!
October 14, 2008 at 1:20 AM
I agree with medea. Really cool he got this award. There were people who protested though. And it's not a political award thankfully. I feel like Canada's done a lot of great things in the past, things that can't be undone by two years of conservative government but if he's in for two more years...I just hope things don't get worse but I don't hope for things to get better. I'm just glad we got gay marriage, universal healthcare, abortion rights, etc before this guy got in. Oh yeah, we vote tomorrow.