TORONTO (CLN) On November 21st, Morgentaler’s case began in Toronto. At the opening of the court Morgentaler’s lawyer, Morris Manning, refused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, arguing that the charges against Morgentaler were invalid and unconstitutional on the grounds that the abortion section of the Criminal Code violated the Charter of Rights. Specifically, he argued that the law invalidated the sections of the Charter dealing with the guarantee of freedom of conscience, religion, belief; the section dealing with the security of persons; and the section dealing with the application of equality to male and female persons.
Thus began the first of the two-part court proceeding. The first part deals with the constitution arguments as set out above, is to be followed by the second part, which is to be a jury trial on the charge of conspiracy to procure a miscarriage.
Largest abortion operation in USA
Defense counsel Manning placed on the witness stand a series of pro-abortion witnesses, many American – all of whom are directly involved in abortion, either actively performing abortions or referring for abortions, and who are deeply involved in the advocacy of abortion on demand.
Manning’s American witnesses include Dr. Phillip Stubblefield, a board member of Planned Parenthood of America (PPA). He is also medical director of Planned Parenthood in Massachusetts, operates forty abortion clinics in the U.S., his is the largest abortion operation in America performing over 80,000 abortions a year. Stubblefield is also medical director of an abortion clinic in Worcester, Mass. He is also medical advisor to the board of directors of the National Abortion Federation, whose charter stated its primary goal is fostering the provision of quality abortion service. The charter also states that the federation serves as a forum for abortion service procedures and other organizations and individuals committed to their goal. Finally, Stubblefield is also a member of Pathfinder Foundation, which funds abortion and sterilization in the Third World.
Abortion pushers
Christopher Tietze, M.D. is also a board member of the National Abortion Federation, whose purpose is to educate the public about abortion and actively seek judicial decisions in favor of abortion on demand. Tietze is also Vice President of the Association for the Study of Abortion Inc. (ASA) and is well known as a pusher for abortion in the U.S. and throughout the world.
Another American witness was Dr. Henry David, a psychologist and member of the Trans-National Family Institute, an organization tied in with world abortion, funded by the anti-life John D. Rockefeller Foundation. Christopher Tietze also sits on the Board of the Trans-National Family Institute and David’s wife, Betsy, sits on the board of the National Abortion Federation.
The Canadian witnesses include well-known pro-abortion activist, Carolyn Egan, an active member of the Ontario Coalition for abortion Clinics (OCAC). Ms. Egan is a counselor at Toronto’s VD and birth control clinic, and as such, she is an employee of the provincially funded agency, the North York Board of Board of Health.
Dr. John Lamont of McMaster University, another witness, is a member of the association called “Doctors to Repeal the Abortion Law (DRAL). When asked by the Crown Prosecutor to identify the various stages of the development of the unborn child, Lamonte, an obstetrician and gynecologist, stated he did not know them.
Dr. Wendell Watters, a psychiatrist at McMaster, testified for the defence. He is a board member of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) and a member of Doctors to Repeal the Abortion Law (DRAL).
Fought tenaciously in 1975
Another Canadian witness Dr. Augustin Roy, president of the Quebec Association of Physicians and Surgeons, served as defence witness in Morgentaler’s Montreal trials in 1973, and his name was on the letterhead of the Morgentaler Defence Committee at that time. Roy, in his capacity as a member of the Quebec College of Physicians and Surgeons, fought tenaciously in 1975 to try to prevent the disciplinary committee of that College from reviewing Morgentaler’s practice of medicine. That review led to the suspension of Morgentaler’s licence for one year for “…inadequacies in the quality of his professional practice which… cannot be reconciled with the practice of good medicine.”
Other witnesses included Rosemary Christianson, former acting chairwoman of Hamilton CARAL, as well as two administrators of abortion clinics, one from Buffalo and the other from the Province of Quebec.
