Morgentaler's message

Editorial

For those who have been at the cabin the last little while or who have been otherwise removed from any source of news, Dr. Henry Morgentaler has been granted the Order of Canada, igniting an inferno of hostility from anti-abortion groups.

No individual has provided more of a public face to the fight for legal, safe abortion in Canada than Morgentaler. In the early 1970s, Morgentaler was imprisoned for 10 months for providing illegal abortions. He was acquitted and released, but not before suffering a heart attack in solitary confinement. He was charged again in the 1980s, by which time Canada had a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Supreme Court of Canada ruled, in effect, that no law bars the provision of abortion in Canada. Several attempts by Parliament to adopt a law that would define limits of access to abortion, even within the confines set by the Charter, failed to pass.

Jewish tradition takes a nuanced approach to this issue. One source that captures the ambiguity in the Jewish position states that with "the exception of some Orthodox authorities, Judaism supports abortion access for women." The source notes that "the fetus has great value because it is potentially a human life" but it gains "full human status at birth only." In Judaism, the decision is mainly based on whether the mother's life is in danger. That said, individual rabbis will have varying opinions and each case will present its own unique circumstances for consideration.

Morgentaler himself is Jewish, which may have had an impact on his views, but he has had an ambivalent relationship with his Jewishness. After liberation from Auschwitz, Morgentaler came to Canada, in part, because he opposed Zionism. He was the founding president of the Humanist Association of Canada, an anti-religious group.

A few comments on websites in recent days have pointed out Morgentaler's Jewishness – not in a positive context – but it is safe to say that the Jewish community has not taken immense naches in the appointment, as we have when other Jews have been recognized by our nation's highest honor.

The honor was a shock, certainly. In its announcement, Rideau Hall commended Morgentaler for "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."

One of the critics of Morgentaler's honor notes that the award was seemingly intended to cement conventional Canadian wisdom – that legal abortion is here to stay – but that the uproar suggests the opponents of legal abortion still have some fight in them.

"It turns out that abortion is not quite the settled issue it was supposed to be," wrote Father Raymond J. De Souza, a Catholic priest and National Post columnist.

Certainly, Canadian law is clear, defined not only by judicial precedent but by parliamentary vote: abortion is legal. There are, though, a range of impediments standing between women and access to abortion. In many rural locations, including the entire province of Prince Edward Island, there are no doctors who provide the service, leading to an economic burden for women and adding to the emotional impact and crucial time obstacles.

What De Souza and thousands of others who have spoken out are suggesting is that the issue remains open and unsettled. Fair enough. An issue is open as long as people in a democracy say it is open.

At the heart of this discussion, however, should not be moral attitudes around abortion – moral positions are for individuals to address in their own lives. If you oppose abortion, don't have one. But women's access to safe abortion is a health issue and, therefore, a national concern. For countless reasons that are, bluntly, none of our business, women since ancient times have done what is necessary to end unwanted or dangerous pregnancies.

Nobody likes, encourages or supports abortion per se. But plain reality is that, in the absence of safe, legal access to abortion, women will find unsafe, illegal avenues. We can do far more to prevent unwanted pregnancy – a position of many abortion opponents that is so infuriatingly hypocritical is their opposition to abortion and the reasonable precautions that could prevent pregnancy, as well as transmission of fatal and other illnesses.

But we should take a lesson from the warnings of those who have spoken up in opposition to Morgentaler's award: the access to safe and legal abortion is in no way a permanent certainty in Canada. The possibility of backsliding to days of proverbial back-alley or self-induced abortions remains absolutely possible. Morgentaler's induction and the frenzy it evoked should be welcomed if it awakens us from any sense of complacency. The days of women dying for want of a safe, legal procedure is not as remote a memory as we might like. A large number of Canadians consider those the good old days.

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