Protesters demand decision to honour Morgentaler be reversed

By BETH JOHNSTON, SUN MEDIA

Angelina Steenstra had an abortion 36 years ago -- and her conscience still bothers her.

Yesterday, in front of a crowd of 400 at Rideau Hall, she denounced the decision she made in 1972 and last week's decision to award Henry Morgentaler the Order of Canada.

"I had an abortion and there's nothing heroic or award-winning about it," she said.

"Every time a baby is torn from its mother's womb, it tears our country apart. Just as ripping a baby from its mother's womb is divisive, the issue is dividing Canadians."

Ottawa police attended yesterday's protest, but the rowdiest the mostly geriatric crowd got was to shout "hear, hear" and "shame, shame" as Steenstra, now the national coordinator of the Silent No More awareness campaign, urged the committee to reconsider its decision.

CALLED ON GG

The award should be given to someone who "heals women and babies," she argued.

The protesters -- carrying a ceramic baby Jesus, wearing rosary beads and crucifixes and carrying signs that read "Revoke," "Abortion Hurts Women" and "Don't Divide Canadians" -- want the Governor General to revoke the decision to honour Morgentaler.

The abortion doctor is set to be named to the Order of Canada for work that changed Canada's abortion laws 20 years ago. Morgentaler left his work as a general practitioner in Montreal to open abortion clinics across Canada. The clinics were often the location of police raids and the Toronto clinic was firebombed.

Morgentaler was imprisoned for 10 months for performing abortions illegally.

In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down abortion laws that forced women seeking the procedure to get the approval of a panel of doctors.

Protester Fred Stuit said Canada failed as a country in choosing to bestow the abortionist with the country's highest honour.

A 'DISGRACE'

"Given the number of Canadians against it, I just don't think it's democratic," he said.

Retired Ottawa high school teacher Frank Kelly called it a "disgrace" that a "pathetic old murderer" will be honoured.

"May God bring him to heaven, Morgentaler must be tamed," he said.

"He must stop his murderous career and express publicly his regret for the citizens of Canada that he has killed in the womb. Those little citizens of Canada are now saints in heaven and they're praying for Morgentaler."

Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MP Pierre Lemieux said he's received hundreds of letters and has found that 10 to one are opposed to Morgentaler's nomination.