To the Editor:
It seemed ironic that on the day Canada’s most notorious abortionist, Henry Morgentaler, passed away, the lead news story was of a newborn baby being rescued from a sewer pipe.
It is also ironic that Morgentaler once said, “We don’t abort babies, we want to abort fetuses before they become babies… Around 24 weeks I have ethical problems doing that.” But babies have survived as young as 21 weeks.
Ironically, again, it was thanks to Morgentaler’s actions that the Supreme Court of Canada struck down existing abortion laws in 1988 and made Canada with no restrictions whatsoever, permitting babies even beyond 24 weeks to be aborted.
With no legal protection for children in the womb, we are aligned with only North Korea and China and many abortions in Canada are done past 24 weeks. But, despite his quote, he never renounced his position in public, and in Canada since the infamous 1988 decision there have been upwards of 100,000 abortions every year.
Morgentaler took his message to an unprepared generation and successfully deceived them by separating humanity from the pre-born child. But it has been over a quarter of a century since he was victorious.
Fetal development now seen with our own eyes through scientific advances, has resulted in Canada’s current public policy being completely out of line with public opinion. Polls show that Canadians want some restrictions on when babies can be aborted.
Current no restrictions, abortion on demand is not what the Supreme Court justices anticipated when they wrote their decision in 1988, since we now allow abortion in the latter stages of pregnancy, or for sex-selective purposes.
I remember reading at the time of Morgentaler’s court cases that he turned women away from his clinic if they did not have enough money for his set abortion costs.
A few weeks ago, Marches for Life were held in many Canadian cities and among the thousands gathered there were courageous women who came to speak publicly about the harms that they have experienced from clinical abortions, holding signs about the injuries they suffered.
I read a recent newspaper article mentioning how Vicky Green, a social worker living in Ottawa, had three abortions, the last one done by Morgentaler. Vicky said she cried in front of him and said “I don’t want to do this to my baby,” to which Morgentaler replied that it wasn’t one and she’d have more.
Morgentaler championed “choice” but the word should be completed by finishing the thought of what the choice involves: the heart beating at 18 days is ignored by a million dollar business and that heart beat should not be lost in the debate.
Carol Albo, Rossland