The recent disclosures of the mistreatement of Dr. Morgentaler, the Canadian surgeon who since March this year nas been serving an eighteen month sentence for performing abortions. has roused international concern. At the 21 June Demonstration in London 25,000 marchers on the National Abortion Campaign demonstration sent a message of solidarity to tne imprisoned doctor.
Peter Ward reported in the Sunday Times on 22 June that Henry Morgentaler is said by his wife to have suffered a heart attack after the rough said he had been denied the medicine he needs for his heart condition. The Toronto Star on 8 June noted that Morgentaler was taken to hospital three hours after being placed in an isolation cell. Joe Morris (president of the Canadian Labour Congress) said that Morgentaler is being humillated and mistreated by his jail guards to the extent where his life may now be in danger.
ACQUITTED Morgentaler has twice been acquitted of abortion charges by juries. first time, in 1973, the Quebec Minastry or Jusuce appeaca to a migner court, which reversed the decision, sentencing him to eighteen months imprisonment. This decision was later upheld by the Canadian Supreme Court. He was again acquitted on 9 June for having performed an illegal abortion. This second charge is now being appealed by the Quebec Dept. of Justice. Morgentaler also faces an additional 11 charges of performing illegal abortions.
At present, a Canadian women can obtain an abortion only in a licensed hospital and only after a special committee of doctors has agreed that 'the continuation of the pregnancy would be likely to endanger the woman's "life or health'. Canadian Health Minister Mare Lalonde is reported to have admitted, last March, that fewer than one-third of Canadian hospitals had treatment he received from the guards abortion committees, while in Quebec at Waterloo prison, near Montreal. She only 27 of the province's 281 hospitals had them. As a result, many doctors, including Morgentaler, have performed abortions outside the jurisdiction of the 'law, without approval from an abortion committee.
Because of the restrictive abortion laws, many women are forced to go to back-street abortionists and many women leave the country to have their abortions rather than risk the danger of being too late by the time their case goes for approval to an abortion committee in Canada. The only other alternatives - for the majority of Canadian women seeking abortions - are to give birth to an unwanted child or to run the risk of being butchered by back-street abortionists.
INVOLVEMENT Recently, 116 French-speaking Quebec doctors signed a statement admitting involvement in obtaining or performing abortions. Morgentaler's case has been a battle between abortion rights on the one hand and the reactionary 'right-to-life movement and the Canadian Government on the other. The anti-abortionists have mounted a massive campaign throughout Canada. They plan to present a petition with one million signatures favouring restrictions on abortion.
The Canadian Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws organised a march in Ottawa, on 24 May to protest the imprisonment of Dr. Morgentaler, and is at present staging a vigil in Toronto until his release. In March two days after it was announced that the Cabinet had no intention of reviewing Morgentaler's conviction, the Committee for Amnesty for Dr. Morgentaler was formed.
Support has come from the Canadian Labour Congress, the Ontario Lawyers Association and the Canadian Council of Social Development. Even former Conservative Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker, called the proceedings against Morgentaler an orgy of persecution.
FOR the most oppressed and socially immobilised group is driven to organise.
al branches some ot which nave been active in tne abortion campaign right to choose. On Tuesday 1 July one-parent families took to the streets for the first time. Nearly three thousand women with a sprinkling of men and many children showed that even The largest one-parent family organisation is 'Gingerbread", with hundreds of loc A weakness of the demonstration, however, was the lack of labour movement sup port. Socialists should argue for the labour movement to take up this question - so relevant to the broader issues of women's oppression - in the same way as a woman s