In the 1960s, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a Jewish holocaust survivor, comes to see that the right to have the legal option of an abortion on demand is a fundamental human right for women. However, when he openly lobbies for that right, he is approached by desperate women who eventually force him to put his words into action. In defiance of the law, Dr. Morgentaler opens an abortion clinic which begins a long running political battle that would eventually achieve the abolishment of all abortion legislation in Canada and the validity of jury nullification. However in that struggle, Dr. Morgentaler must face hostile political enemies, prison and his own personal problems like his troubled family life aggrevated by his personal ego and his repressed painful childhood memories.