Your Stories: On Finding a Pro-Life Doctor

SPL member Stephanie D. wrote:

I had to have some minor gynecological surgery done today, and wary that some gynos also do abortions, I specifically looked at a gyno attached to a Catholic hospital and booked into what I thought was a Catholic surgicentre. Found out once I was in the prep room ready to go that although the surgicentre is next door to the Catholic hospital, it is not part of the hospital. I was immediately worried, then overheard that the two women waiting in the prep room with me were both having D&Cs, which are not always for abortion, but can be.

By this stage I was already in my gown, my belongings gone, and even though my anxiety was growing I tried not to think about it.

Woke up after surgery and went into recovery room. Filled with women who had all had D&Cs. It was my doctor’s D&C day.

Now I’m at home feeling kind of traumatized because I had gone out of my way to avoid being in a death centre and ended up right in the middle of one. My doctor probably killed a child just before he did my surgery. Of course it’s not as traumatic as just losing your baby and then waking up surrounded by people who deliberately killed their children, but I am not a very happy person right now.

It kind of sucks that I, as an atheist, have to book into Catholic hospitals just to avoid having a doctor who has deliberately taken life treat me.

Shouldn’t all patients be assured that their doctor has never deliberately killed a human being and claimed it was a medical procedure?

Stephanie’s story inspired us to ask our facebook fans about their experiences with trying to find a pro-life doctor. The responses revealed a general consensus. Few cared about making sure that every doctor they saw was pro-life; as Chelse C. put it, “I’m sure plenty of doctors believe in the death penalty, but they don’t go around killing patients.” But ob/gyns were held to a higher standard. Mothers felt very strongly about making sure that abortionists were not involved in their prenatal and birth care.

Here are a few top comments, lightly edited for clarity. You can view all comments here.

Robin E. – I’m
in the military and I’ve been intentionally avoiding my flight doc
because at a recent talk to the entire squadron he got on a soapbox rant
about how he wished the military would pay for him to do abortions. It
was REALLY creepy!

Lauren E. – I
go to a NaPro doctor so she’s 100% pro-life. This is important to me in ob/gyn care because I’m a feminist and being treated as if my body is broken
because it can reproduce, or having my unborn children treated with less
dignity than they deserve, is not ok
with me. But for regular family doctors I haven’t put as much effort
into vetting their pro-life views. Maybe I will down the road but it
hasn’t been something that’s interfered with our quality of care.
 
Nicole P. – If I had an OB that told me I should abort they would find themselves
with an earful and one less patient. I chose midwives for my two births and they are pro-life. They are the most pro-woman group of women I
have ever met.

Sarah Terzo (of ClinicQuotes.com) – My rheumatoid arthritis doctor once told me that if I ever got pregnant on the medicine I was
on, I’d have to have an abortion. Since the likelihood of me ever
getting pregnant is almost nonexistent, I said nothing, but it bothered
me. The subject of abortion came up again
while he was taking blood one day. We were talking about political
candidates with the medical assistant in the room and he said “Yeah and
he doesn’t support a woman’s right to choose.” I said “well, I don’t
really support abortion myself.” (A wimpy answer, but remember, he had a
needle in my arm.) He said “Well, you don’t go around talking about it
and trying to change people’s opinion,” Um… ClinicQuotes? Writer for
Live Action? I kept my mouth shut, I wimped out.

Kelsey Z. – When
I get pregnant, I am definitely going with a pro-life OB or midwife. If
it turns out my baby is going to have a developmental disability or
something, it would make me nauseous to even hear the question of
whether I’d want to abort. What an offensive, sick question. Doctors are
trained to heal, not kill.

Sarah S. – When
I was searching for an ob/gyn for my pregnancy, I did a simple Google
search on one of the doctors I found, and I came across a page that
listed all of the doctors in our state who perform abortions. I was
horrified to find a number of ob/gyns who both care for pregnancies and
perform abortions… and so thankful to have discovered it so I could
steer away.


Dana M. – I will not be seen by a person who kills children. Not for my health care and definitely not for a pregnancy.

Annie B. – My
doctor for all of my babies (who is sadly retired now) was completely
pro-life and I thought she was amazing! I didn’t go looking for her, but
she shared her views on abortion at my first appointment with my first
son. I requested her for each pregnancy because she was compassionate
and helpful and very dedicated to making sure my babies and I were
healthy.

A subset of abortion advocates have been trying valiantly to incorporate abortion and birth into the same healthcare facilities, arguing that an abortion center can “recognize and validate the full range of women’s reproductive experiences.” This misstates the problem. It’s not that we think the abortionist will go rogue and be unable to resist aborting someone’s loved and wanted child if tasked with prenatal care. Abortionists can recognize and validate women’s experiences all they want. But they’ll never be able to recognize that the preborn child is a patient too.

An abortionist-slash-obstetrician sees the preborn child as an object. An abortionist-slash-obstetrician sees a basic tool in the obstetrical toolbox, ultrasound, as the enemy of his
abortion practice: an “anti-choice tactic” to “humanize the fetus.” Abortion corrupts.

And so mothers recoil in revulsion at being treated by the doctor who just killed someone else’s child in the next room. That stigma ain’t going anywhere.

P.S.: If you’re currently in the market for a pro-life ob/gyn, check out AAPLOG’s database.