Citation

Morgentaler H. Conscience 1996; 17(3): 7-9.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Catholics for a Free Choice)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12178872

Abstract

This document reprints the text of a letter sent by Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the Canadian abortion provider whose appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada led to the removal of abortion from the Criminal Code, to Pope John Paul II on December 5, 1995. In this letter, Morgentaler recounts his personal experience of the violence and threats issued by anti-abortion activists and notes that he is a survivor of two Nazi death camps. Morgentaler tells the Pope that the killing of innocent people in abortion clinics in the US has been provoked by the violent language used by religious leaders to condemn the medical workers who provide abortion. Morgentaler also reminds the Pope that hundreds of thousands of young women die from septic abortion in countries where the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church keep abortion illegal. In the interests of saving these lives and preventing the orphaning of untold numbers of children, Morgentaler urges the Pope to reassess his attitudes and statements about abortion and, in particular, to stop using inflammatory terms which incite violence. As a Holocaust survivor, Morgentaler also notes his belief that comparing abortion to the Holocaust is gratuitous, insulting, and obscene. Morgentaler reminds the Pope that the Church does not condemn spontaneous abortion and asks why, if God fails to prevent spontaneous abortion, the Church should object to abortion as a conscious choice. In closing, Morgentaler offers the possibility that a resumption of dialogues across religious, philosophical, and ideological lines would help prevent the demonization that leads to violence.

Language: en