Canadian abortion campaigner Henry Morgentaler dies

Henry Morgentaler, a Holocaust survivor who became Canada's leading abortion campaigner and spent time in jail for terminating pregnancies, has died at the age of 90.

Morgentaler, who died on Wednesday, set up Canada's first independent abortion clinic in Montreal in 1969 at a time when the procedure could only be performed in hospitals and was limited to cases when doctors deemed that continuation of a pregnancy could harm a woman.

His campaign eventually made its way to the Canadian Supreme Court, which backed him in a January 1988 judgment that said existing abortion laws were unconstitutional.

The then Progressive Conservative government tried in 1990 to recriminalise abortion in cases where women's health was not at risk. That effort ended in failure, leaving Canada with effectively no restrictions on abortion.

"Canadian women owe Dr Morgentaler a tremendous debt of gratitude for standing up for their lives and health at great personal sacrifice and risk. He survived numerous threats on his life, a clinic bombing, and aggressive protests," said National Abortion Federation president Vicki Saporta.

Morgentaler died at a time when some lawmakers in Canada's right-leaning ruling Conservative Party are openly expressing their opposition to abortion. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, wary of stirring up passions on a contentious social issue, says as long as he is in power the government will not move to restrict abortions.