Feminist To Know: Henry Morgentaler

A Holocaust survivor, Dr. Henry Morgentaler immigrated to Canada at the age of 27 after the end of the Second World War, and began to practice medicine. Morgentaler was one of the first doctors in Canada to provide family planning services such as vasectomies, or providing birth control to unmarried women.

In 1968, Morgentaler gave up his family practice and transitioned to exclusively providing abortions and providing contraceptives in direct defiance of the law, putting his career and livelihood on the line. He was arrested and tried three times for providing illegal abortions––each time, he was acquited through jury nullification (where jurors vote not guilty on a case where they believe the premise is unjust).

After the third trial, all charges against Morgentaler were dropped; it became evident it was an unenforceable law. It was simply impossible to find a jury who would enforce it. Thus, through a series of civil disobediences, from Morgentaler’s operating an abortion clinic to the multiple juries refusing to convict him, abortion was decriminalized in Quebec.