From The Canadian Press:SAINTE-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRE, Que. - Jean-Claude Cardinal Turcotte, the archbishop of Montreal, is returning his Order of Canada because abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler received the same honour.
Turcotte said Thursday he hoped the controversy surrounding Morgentaler being named to the Order of Canada in July would prompt officials to revise their decision.
Turcotte, who received the honour in 1996, says he could no longer stay on the sidelines because he believes his silence could be misinterpreted.
He says he feels obliged to reaffirm his convictions regarding the "respect for human life, from conception to death."
Morgentaler was instrumental in having the high court strike down Criminal Code restrictions on abortion on Jan. 28, 1988, making Canada the only western democracy with no criminal sanctions of any kind against abortion.
Morgentaler, a Polish-born physician who survived the infamous Dachau concentration camp, quit his family practice in Montreal in 1968 to open his first abortion clinic in defiance of the laws of the day.
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