A doctor in Australia has said that a Melbourne couple recently aborted a child at 19 weeks because they wanted a boy. The doctor, who was pro-life refused to refer them to an abortionist. Now, it’s become quite a fracas over in Australia but the focus of the outrage might not be what you think.
Spoiler alert: The doctor is facing sanctions.
Here’s a snippet of the original story The Courier Mail:
Dr (Mark) Hobart, who stood as a candidate for the Democratic Labor Party, which is anti-abortion, at a by-election for the Victorian state seat of Broadmeadows in 2011 and remains a member of the party, said he refused to give them a referral and reported the specialist, who later terminated the pregnancy, to the Medical Board.
“The parents were upfront and told me that was the reason for the abortion,” Dr Hobart said.
“I was dumbfounded. To get a request for an abortion for that reason, I just couldn’t believe it. It was the husband who did all the talking – he was so insistent.”
Despite being refused a referral by Dr Hobart, the woman had an abortion a few days later.
The Medical Board told Dr Hobart on Friday it would not pursue the matter because Victorian doctors are allowed to terminate pregnancies of up to 24 weeks.
The Courier Mail was so uneasy, I guess, with a story that put abortion in a bad light that they blew the top off their own story the following day. The story all of a sudden became that the eeeeeeevil Dr. Hobart was actually pro-life all along. Aha!
But that was actually reported in the original story. But the implication made is that because he’s pro-life we can’t really believe his story because…you know…he’s one of those crazies that believes abortion is murder.
And now Dr. Hobart may be facing sanctions for his refusal to refer to an abortionist.
A DOCTOR who says that he refused an abortion referral on gender grounds believes all abortion is “murder” and said he has not made any referrals for “quite some years”.
Dr Mark Hobart said he was “dumbfounded” when a couple told him they wanted an abortion referral because they wanted a boy, not a girl, and says he broke the law by refusing to provide a referral.
In Victoria, a doctor who is a “conscientious objector” to abortion is required to refer patients to another doctor who is not a conscientious objector.
Dr Hobart said he would not know which doctors were objectors or not, but he refused to refer the couple directly to an abortion clinic, then learned later they had found one and had the abortion.
According to a 2011 submission to a Victorian inquiry, Dr Hobart believes “anyone with full knowledge of their actions and with free will who assists in abortion is committing a mortal sin and the Catholic Church teaches this person will go to hell”.
“I am unable to refer for an abortion, because reason and logic lead me to conclude it is murder,” he wrote.
“To say it is not murder is against direct observation, reason and logic.
“To say it is not murder is to deny reality. Hence, if I refer for an abortion I become an accomplice to murder.”
Asked yesterday if he still stood by those views, Dr Hobart said that he did. “That’s basically how I feel,” he said.
Dr Hobart is a former Democratic Labor Party candidate. “Pro-life” Victorian DLP senator John Madigan has drafted legislation to ban Medicare rebates for gender-selective abortions, although there is scant evidence they occur.
Dr Hobart conceded the clinic that eventually carried out the abortion on the couple who wanted a boy may have been unaware of their original reasons for the abortion.
Reproductive Choice Australia President Dr Leslie Cannold said Dr Hobart should have disclosed that he wouldn’t have referred the couple to an abortion clinic under any circumstances.
“The doctor made it sound like he wouldn’t refer because of what he alleged were the couple’s reasons for the abortion but now we know he wouldn’t have referred no matter what,” she said.
Yes. The doctor is the story here. The story isn’t that people think so little of life that any old reason will do to have an abortion, including gender.
Victoria Australia has a law that states that doctors must perform abortions or refer to abortionists. So in other words you can’t be a doctor unless you’re willing to take a life.
Say a prayer for Dr. Hobart who is willing to stand up for his faith. This world needs more men like him.
