Dr. Henry Morgentaler speaks to the media in Toronto, July 2, 2008. Dr. Morgentaler was named a member of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest honour, after spending decades of his life advocating the legalisation of abortion in Canada. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) -
Henry Morgentaler, the doctor who led
the fight to legalize abortion in Canada two decades ago, said
on Wednesday he was proud to be receiving his country's highest
civilian award, an honor condemned by anti-abortion advocates
and hailed by his supporters.

The diminutive 85-year-old said he deserved to receive the
Governor General's Order of Canada, a decision announced on
Tuesday by Governor General Michaelle Jean, the country's head
of state.

“It's a sign of recognition for all the work I've done over
the years and the sacrifices I've borne and the unjust sentence
of imprisonment that I've suffered 20 years ago,” Morgentaler
said at a press conference at his Toronto clinic.

Morgentaler, a Holocaust survivor born in Poland, began the
fight for abortion rights in Canada when he opened an illegal
clinic in Montreal in 1969. He was jailed for 10 months after
declaring publicly that he had performed thousands of abortions
without going through a strict screening process conducted by a
three-doctor committee.

He was eventually acquitted in Quebec, and went on to
challenge laws in other provinces, leading to a landmark
Supreme Court ruling in 1988 that struck down anti-abortion
provisions of the Criminal Code as unconstitutional.

“Women no longer die as a result of abortion,” he said on
Wednesday, “and I'm very proud of that.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who heads the socially
conservative right-leaning Conservative party, expressed
unhappiness about the award.

“I guess my preference, to be frank, would be to see the
Order of Canada be something that really unifies and brings
Canadians together,” he told a news conference.

The award also raised fierce opposition among religious
groups, anti-abortion organizations and members of Canada's
Conservative government, which has distanced itself from the
decision to honor Morgentaler.

“Canada's highest honor has been debased,” Roman Catholic
Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto said in a statement. “We
are all diminished.”

Today, Canada is among the countries with the greatest
access to abortion in publicly funded hospitals and clinics.
Exceptions are the small Maritime provinces of Prince Edward
Island and New Brunswick, where there is limited or no access
due to a shortage of qualified doctors and facilities.

Morgentaler, who was praised on the governor general's Web
site for “his commitment to increased health-care options for
women,” is one of 75 people who will receive the prestigious
award at a later date.

Appointments are made on the recommendations of an
independent council chaired by the chief justice of Canada.

While an Angus Reid poll last month showed half of
Canadians believe abortion should be legal under any
circumstances, opponents say they speak for the majority of
Canadians.

“It is hard to believe that the Queen's representative and
our government can ignore the beliefs of the majority of
Canadians by bestowing what was such a prestigious honor on a
man who has spent his life denying the most fundamental human
right, the right to life for all human beings,” said Joanne
Byfield, president of LifeCanada, an advocacy group.

But Morgentaler has his ardent supporters, too. Judy
Rebick, a professor of politics and public administration at
Ryerson University in Toronto and the former head of one of
Canada's largest feminist organizations, told Reuters that the
decision is a remarkable statement of democracy in Canada.

“I don't think it's unrelated that 50 percent of the
committee is women and that the chief justice is a woman and
the governor general is a woman,” Rebick said. “It reflects in
Canada the extent to which women have achieved positions of
power.”

(Editing by Frank McGurty)

(claire.sibonney@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
claire.sibonney.reuters.com@reuters.net; 416-941-8142)