Canada: ‘Why I am an abortion doctor’

In a speech to mark the 20th anniversary of R v Morgentaler, Garson Romalis explains why he continues to perform abortions despite two attempts on his life. 

’The first time I started to think about abortion was in 1960, when I was in second-year medical school. I was assigned the case of a young woman who had died of a septic abortion. She had aborted herself using slippery elm bark.

‘I had never heard of slippery elm. A buddy and I went down to skid row, and without too much difficulty, purchased some slippery elm bark to use as a visual aid in our presentation. Slippery elm is not sterile, and frequently contains spores of the bacteria that cause gas gangrene. It is called slippery elm because, when it gets wet, it feels slippery. This makes it easier to slide slender pieces through the cervix where they absorb water, expand, dilate the cervix, produce infection and induce abortion. The young woman in our case developed an overwhelming infection. At autopsy she had multiple abscesses throughout her body, in her brain, lungs, liver and abdomen.

‘I have never forgotten that case ...’

The speech is posted in full on the blog of the National Post Comment section. Read on...