Henry Morgentaler, the doctor that came to be seen as a defender of Canadian women's right to have abortions, died on Wednesday, CBC News reports.

Morgentaler was 90 years old. It was not immediately clear how he passed away.

According to an online biography, Morgentaler was born in Poland in 1923 and moved to Canada after surviving the Holocaust.

He began his first family practice in Montreal in 1955 and, 13 years later, he opened the doors the first freestanding clinic to offer abortions in Canada.

In 1967, he appeared in front of a House of Common Health and Welfare Committee investigating illegal abortions and said "any woman should have the right to end her pregnancy without risking death," according to the biography.

He was named to the Order of Canada in 2008.

More to come.