Henry Morgentaler

1970: Morgentaler arrested in Quebec for performing an abortion in a free-standing abortuary, without approval from a hospital therapeutic abortion committee.

1973: Morgentaler announces he has performed 5,000 abortions.

1973: The Quebec Ministry of Revenue orders Morgentaler to pay $354,799 in unpaid income taxes. Following an out-of-court settlement, he pays $101,000 in back taxes.

1973-76: Morgentaler stanbs trial on four charges of committing an illegal abortion in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976 in Montreal.

1974: An earlier acquittal is overturned by five judges on the Quebec Court of Appeal and Morgentaler is sent to prison for 10 months.

1974: The Montreal Gazette reports Morgentaler re-used vacurettes in early vacuum abortions, a practice discouraged by Berkeley Bio-Engineering Co.

1976: The disciplinary committee of the Professional Corporation of Physicians of Quebec suspends Morgentaler’s medical licence for a year as a result of his conviction for having performed an illegal abortion after botching an abortion on a black foreign student.

1983: Morgentaler is charged in Toronto for committing an illegal abortion.

2008: In the short documentary 1st Degree Morgentaler, Vicky Green recalls changing her mind mid-abortion and the abortionist replying, “It’s not a baby,” while completing the procedure.

2008: Maclean’s magazine reveals that in 1973, Morgentaler wrote a letter to prime minister Trudeau hinting he might blackmail the prime minister if the abortion law was not amended and noted Trudeau’s cousin, Dr. Leon Trudeau, referred clients to him.