Author: Tech

The Associated Press Reported in the article, “Abortionists Shun AIDS-Infected Women, Survey Finds” March 21 1990:

In a survey, conducted in November 1988 through February 1989, callers from the New York City human rights commission made appointments with 30 abortion clinics and physicians that advertised in the Yellow Pages.

• Twenty abortion clinics canceled the appointment after the caller said she was infected with HIV but had no symptoms of AIDS. Twelve of the 20 said they did not have adequate infection control.

• Others said abortion on an HIV-infected woman was too complicated a procedure for them to handle and referred the caller to a hospital.

Many of the responses “were very hostile,” said a committee lawyer. “Some just hung up or said, We can’t treat your kind.”

Abortionist Lewis Koplik was asked to respond to the story and told reporters that he has an “undocumented gut feeling” that the discrimination might be happening elsewhere. “If you have one woman who has HIV infection or AIDS and can’t get service, that’s a real problem. It’s just something that should not happen,” he said.

Los Angeles obstetrician-gynecologist David Grimes, chairman of Planned Parenthood’s medical advisory committee, told the reporters that he does not believe the problem is widespread, although it may be more apparent on the East Coast where more women are infected with HIV.

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The National Academy Of Sciences, HIV Screening of Pregnant Women and Newborns (1991) Reported:

HIV-infected pregnant women who elect to terminate their pregnancies may discover that their access to abortion services is restricted. Some areas report outright exclusion of HIV-infected women by abortion clinics. In an attempt to document the degree to which HIV-infected women were discriminated against in gaining access to abortions revealed that two-thirds of the abortion facilities contacted in the study:

• Canceled appointments made by allegedly HIV-infected women once their infection status was disclosed.

• Some of the facilities attempted a plausible response, such as their inability to handle that type of procedure.

Others:

• Changed the vacation schedules of the physicians or quoted inflated prices for abortion services to discourage those seeking care.

• Openly reported that their staff refused to care for HIV-infected patients.

This information was compiled by Life Dynamics at their website www.deathroe.com

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Pro-choice author Janet Hadley tells the following story:

A 38-year-old Haitian woman in New York City learned that she was HIV-positive during her antenatal care in a hospital with an excellent record for high risk pregnancy care. She was advised not to tell anyone her HIV status, that her chances of having a baby with AIDS were extremely high and that she should abort the fetus. She was also told to go home and write her will, because she was going to die. She was asymptomatic.

She chose to continue her pregnancy. When she went for her next routine checkup, she was taken to another building for a meeting with several high-ranking medical personnel. They told her that having a child with AIDS was worse than having a child with spina bifida, which her older daughter has. They said such a child would be a burden to society, and that she would be wrong not to abort. She insisted that she wanted to have the baby and pleaded that they continue her care. They refused, stating that the hospital was not equipped to treat her.

She was referred to another hospital for a second trimester abortion. This was performed without counseling or obtaining her signed consent. She was placed in a room marked “isolation” during her induced labor and left alone screaming for help for 15 minutes after the fetus was expelled. When she hemorrhaged because the abortion was incomplete, she was made to walk down the hall to the operating room. In both hospitals as soon as they knew that she was HIV-positive, she felt they wanted to get rid of her.

The Center for Constitutional rights in New York filed a case against both hospitals for discrimination, inflicting emotional distress, negligence and failure to obtain consent for abortion in the second hospital.”

 

Story was from M. Berer, with S. Ray “Women and HIV/AIDS an International Resource Book” (London: Pandora) page 94, 1993

Quoted in Janet Hadley “Abortion: between Freedom and Necessity” (Great Britain: Virago Press) 1996

Hadley reveals that according to studies, 6 to 8 out of 10 babies born to AIDS infected mothers do not develop AIDS.

One third of abortion clinics in the US do not operate an HIV-positive patients or they raise their fees (page 130)

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