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The reaction of the religious and political right to the July 1
appointment of Dr. Henry Morgentaler to the Order of Canada is a rude
reminder of a couple of facts:
1) How infrequently the Canadian bourgeoisie concedes any honour upon a
genuine fighter for the rights of women and working people.
2) How fragile and incomplete the right to choose abortion remains in the
Canadian state, both in terms of lack of access to safe, affordable
procedures for women across vast regions of the country, and the
intransigence of the foes of women’s rights.
Furthermore, it needs to be stated that none of the gains of women,
youth, minorities, and the working class as a whole are secure so long as
capitalism survives. The constant assaults on the right to organize and
strike, the steady erosion of pensions, welfare, employment insurance,
access to public health care, education, housing and mass transit, all
provide grim testimony to the system’s anti-social animus.
Morgentaler, now a frail 85, devoted a lifetime of sacrifice and service
to the cause of women’s reproductive rights. He survived jail,
death threats, and even the destruction by fire bombing of one of his clinics.
He richly deserves laudatory recognition and honours, such as the Award
for Outstanding Service to Humanity bestowed on him by the Canadian
Labour Congress on May 28.
Yet the bitterness and venomous nature of the attacks on Morgentaler by
Conservative MPs, right-wing Liberals, and the Catholic hierarchy
(Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins said the Order of Canada is
"debased" by the award to Morgentaler) show us, once again,
that the fight for the right of women to control their own health and
bodies is far from over.
Conservative MP (Edmonton Sherwood Park) Ken Epp’s Bill C-484, "The
Unborn Victims of Crime Act", would confer legal status on a fetus.
It is a thinly disguised renewal of the crusade to illegalize abortion.
It would move society, in the words of Toronto Star columnist Antonia
Zerbisias, back towards the dark days of "coat hangers and Drano"
for many poor, young women.
The bill passed two readings in the House of Commons, rather
quietly—except for a June 1 protest demonstration in Montreal, and the
signatures of 25,000 on a petition in Quebec against the proposed law.
Whatever you want to say about the Order of Canada and most of its 5479
other appointees, Henry Morgentaler is a bone fide hero of women and all
working people. May his spirit of dedication to action for social justice
animate the struggle to smash Bill C-484.
Forward ever, backward never!
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