Media and Cultural Representations
Morgentaler was the subject of a 1984 National Film Board of Canada documentary Democracy on Trial: The Morgentaler Affair, directed by Paul Cowan.
In 2005, the CTV television network produced a television movie documenting Morgentaler's life and practice called Choice: The Henry Morgentaler Story. The movie is described thus: "It chronicles how the physician defiantly began his fight for women's reproductive rights in 1967, even serving time in a Quebec prison in 1975 on abortion charges. The story culminates with the Supreme Court of Canada deciding to strike down this country's abortion laws in 1988." In an interview with CTV, Morgentaler explains: "I got involved because this was, for me, a fight for justice, for fundamental justice, and the fact that I could possibly do something to help women in spite of a law which did not allow me to do it." "I was willing to go to jail, I was willing to die for it," he told CTV's Canada AM Wednesday. "So when I look back on it, I look at a life of achievement because I achieved a great deal and I'm very proud of it."
A famous Montreal Gazette editorial cartoon by Terry Mosher lampooned Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau's infamous prediction that "the Montreal Olympics can no more have a deficit, than a man can have a baby." After the financially disastrous 1976 Summer Olympics, a pregnant Drapeau is shown placing a telephone call to Morgentaler.
The alternative rock band Me Mom and Morgentaler used the doctor as the inspiration for its name.
Read more about this topic: Henry Morgentaler
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