...Morgentaler named to Order of Canada...Appointment 'debases' award, says bishop...

OTTAWA - Dr. Henry Morgentaler was named a member of the Order of Canada on Tuesday, an appointment that quickly threw fresh fuel on the bitter abortion debate and was slammed by one of Canada's top Catholics as debasing the award.

While pro-choice groups hailed the appointment as well-deserved and overdue, it outraged pro-life activists and the Archbishop of Toronto.

"Canada's highest honour has been debased . . . We are all diminished," Archbishop Thomas Collins said in a statement.

"Henry Morgentaler is responsible for the most grievous destruction of the most vulnerable in our country . . . the bestowal of this is a dishonourable act and it must be revoked," he said in an interview.

Collins called on "all people of good will to protest this act of dishonour," saying he had instructed all churches in his archdiocese to carry a prayer on Sunday imploring "that the scourge of abortion be lifted from our land."

Almost single-handedly, Morgentaler pushed abortion rights on to the national agenda when he opened an illegal abortion clinic in Montreal in 1969. At one point, he was jailed for 10 months when a lower court acquittal was overturned by a higher court. The issue culminated in a landmark ruling in January 1988 in which the Supreme Court struck down anti-abortion provisions of the Criminal Code on the grounds they violate a woman's constitutional right to "security of person."

The Governor General's office confirmed Tuesday that Morgentaler has been named a member and will receive his insignia at a ceremony to be held at a later date. The appointment had been rumoured for several days.....CONTINUED......
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