VIDEO: 1st Degree Morgentaler

The ten minute video is being released as part of the online film contest Project Breakout. Interestingly the date of the announcement of the winners of Project Breakout happens to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of the January 28, 1988 Supreme Court ruling, known as the ‘Morgentaler Decision,’ which decriminalized abortion in Canada. Since that ruling, the fate of Canada’s abortion law has been in the hands of Parliament, and, since it has failed to act, there has been no legal restriction on abortion for twenty years.

Transcript (courtesy of Marginalized Action Dinosaur):

“We came to a stop light and I wanted to get out and run,” says Mrs. Green, recalling her former boyfriend driving her to Dr. Morgentaler’s first clinic in the east end of Montreal. But soon she found herself face to face with the doctor himself, “I was surprised it was Dr. Morgentaler doing the abortion.”

After a brief counseling session she told him, “I don’t want to do this to my baby.” According to Mrs. Green Dr. Morgentaler replied, “It’s not a baby.” She says she cried the whole way through the abortion procedure.

As Mrs. Green tells her story she asks, "What part of that was choice?" Her question is answered by Denise Mountenay, the founder of Canada Silent No More: Abortion is an unchoice.