Doctor Says ‘Prayer’ Led Her To Refuse Treatment Of Infant With 2 Moms

baby-at-the-pediatricianWhen new parents take a baby to the pediatrician for the first time, they prepare themselves for the usual worst-case scenarios: forgetting to pack a necessity in the diaper bag, a diaper explosion, or a full on nuclear infant meltdown in the waiting room. What they don’t count on is being told the doctor won’t treat their infant because of their sexual orientation. Unfortunately, that is the exact horror with which one Michigan couple was forced to contend.

According to USA Today, Krista Contreras and her wife Jami Contreras were sitting in the waiting room of their pediatrician’s office for their six-day-old daughter’s first check-up when another doctor on staff came out to inform them the pediatrician would not be seeing them. The reason? After “much prayer” the pediatrician decided she couldn’t treat the infant because her parents are lesbians.

“I was completely dumbfounded,” recalled Krista Contreras, the baby’s biological mother. “We just looked at each other and said, ‘Did we hear that correctly?’ …. When we tell people about it, they don’t believe us. They say, ‘(Doctors) can’t do that. That’s not legal.’ And we say, ‘Yes it is.’ “

The pediatrician in question is Dr. Vesna Roi of Eastlake Pediatrics, and the couple put in a lot of work to find her before their daughter was born. They researched various practices and went on several interviews and finally settled on Roi because she took a holistic approach to medicine and they seemed to click. She knew well before their daughter’s first visit that the couple are lesbians.

Krista and Jami said they kept quiet for months about what happened to them, but are now going public to raise awareness about the discrimination the LGBT community faces every day, in every facet of their lives. They provided the media with a handwritten letter the pediatrician sent them. It’s supposed to be an apology, but really it’s just despicable. The letter begins:

“Dear Jami & Krista, I am writing this letter of apology as I feel that it is important and necessary. I never meant to hurt either of you. After much prayer following your prenatal (visit), I felt that I would not be able to develop the personal patient doctor relationship that I normally do with my patients.”

Roi goes on to apologize for not informing the couple of her decision in person and then the letter continues:

“Please know that I believe that God gives us free choice and I would never judge anyone based on what they do with that free choice. Again, I am very sorry for the hurt and angry feelings that were created by this. I hope that you can accept my apology.

I understand pediatricians have a right to refuse to treat certain patients, and I fully support that when it protects children from harm or keeps them from getting sick, such as it is with the current measles outbreak. This is nothing like that.

This is actually the opposite of protecting a child from harm. When you refuse to see a newborn because you disagree with her parents’ lifestyle and then leave two devoted moms scrambling to find a new pediatrician with a six-day-old in tow, that is absolutely harming a child. It’s harming that child’s whole family. Roi’s decision basically amounts to discriminating against a baby on the basis of her parents’ sexual orientation and that is unconscionable.

The American Medical Association issued a statement in support of “diversity, awareness and cultural sensitivity in the medical profession” but it comes too little and too late for the Contreras family, who argue correctly that anti-discrimination laws need to be amended to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Contreras family is no different from any other family. They are two loving parents with an infant. There is no excuse for treating them otherwise.

(Photo: Shutterstock)

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