Bette Mildred Stephenson Pengelly OC OOnt (July 31, 1924 – August 19, 2019) was a Canadian medical doctor and politician in Ontario.
She served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1987 and was a cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative governments of Bill Davis and Frank Miller.
[2][3] She graduated from Earl Haig Secondary School in North York, Ontario in 1941 and was the only female in her class to go on to university.
[5][6][7] On behalf of the CMA, she lobbied then-Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau to remove abortion from the Criminal Code.
According to Stephenson, he agreed to do so but then reneged and instead introduced amendments to the Criminal Code that provided for abortions only when the health of the woman was in danger as determined by a three-doctor hospital committee.
[12] As Minister, she ordered Toronto schools to use the Lord's Prayer during opening or closing exercise instead of silent meditation.
[1] When Miller replaced Davis as Premier of Ontario on February 8, 1985, he named Stephenson as the Chair of the Management Board of Cabinet.
[15] Stephenson was personally re-elected without difficulty, and was named as Ontario's first female Treasurer and Deputy Premier on May 17.