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TORONTO — To his enemies he was a mass murderer, but to many he was the man who shed light on back-street abortions and put women’s health and choice on the front pages of newspapers, TV screens and radio airwaves.

Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who helped overturn Canada’s abortion law 25 years ago, died Wednesday at his Toronto home. He was 90.

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In 1967 Morgentaler, then a family practitioner, emerged in Quebec as an advocate for the right of Canadian women to have abortion on demand, at a time when attempting to induce an abortion was a crime punishable by life in prison.

The issue became a polarizing issue in Canada: On one side the growing women’s liberation movement pushed for the right to choose, while the other was made up of those who equated abortion with murder.

Carolyn Egan, with the Ontario Coalition of Abortion Clinics, says Morgentaler had a huge impact on the lives of women in Canada, bringing them reproductive freedom.