010374 cn One Million Names Sought For Anti-Abortion Petition

TORONTO, Ont. (RNS) One million names on a petition demanding that the Canadian government recognize the "rights of fhe unborn child" is the goal of anti-abortion groups across the country.

The combined membership of the groups totals 600,000. Their adopted name during the petition campaign is "Committee of One Million. "

An "umbrella" organization, for all the anti-abortionist groups, the Alliance for Life plans to complete the petition by fall of 1974.

Dr. Heather Morris, a Jewish doctor who is president of the alliance, said, "It seems that only a mammoth display of concern ... urging legislative protection and recognition of all created human beings, will cause Parliament to act."

She noted that a petition bearing more than 300,000 signatures, the largest ever presented in Canada, asking that abortion legislation be removed, was ignored by the government.

Dr. Morris also referred to the recent , acquittal of Dr., Henry Morgentaler of Montreal, Que.,on an abortion charge. The acquittal is being appealed by the government.

She said that the inference is that Section 251 of the Criminal Code, which outlines the conditions under which an abortion may be performed legally, may be overridden by Section 45.

Section 45 states that there is no criminal responsibility for performing surgery if the operation is performed with care and skill, having regard to the health of the person at the time of the operation.

Dr. Morris warned that should the court's decision stand on appeal, "then not only will we have abortion on demand, but no one - not the unborn, not the distressed woman, not her family - will be safe from exploitative physicians, or paramedical personnel. "

The Committee of One

Million petition calls on the government for legislation that will give the unborn "the same protection provided for any other person. "

The committee includes representatives of the Toronto Right to Life Association, the Coalition for Life, Lawyers for Life, the Friends of Hippocrates, and the 400,000member Quebec United Front Against Abortion, a union of 35 associations.

During a press conference, Douglas Roche, an opposition Conservative M.P. from Edmonton-Stratheona and former editor of the Western Catholic Reporter, said I million signatures would represent too many people to be ignored by government.

Dr. Jean-Marc Brunet of Montreal, president of the humanist Mouvement Naturiste Sociale and a representative of the Quebec United Front Against Abortion, also had harsh words for advocates of abortion.

He charged that Canadian doctors, pharmacists and companies that make equipment used. in abortions,and even bus and taxi drivers, are part of an organized North American abortion industry centered in New York.

Gwendolyn Landolt, president of the Toronto Right to Life organization, said there is a need for babies for adoption and that there should be increased emphasis on the adoption of handicapped ,'multi-racial children."

Dr. Morris was asked by reporters whether her organization plans to distribute contraception information. She said "we feel we will not impinge" on such organizations as Planned Parenthood. However, as a doctor, she would give such information if asked for it.

She identified herself as Jewish and said the antiabortion group is non-sectarian.

In the wake of Dr. Morgentaler's acquittal and recent Statistics Canada reports of a 26 per cent increase in therapeutic abortions across Canada between 1971 and 1972, Archbishop Philip F. Pocock of Toronto, has called on Catholics to launch a letter writing campaign designed to protect the unborn