An Australian doctor is under investigation and risks being struck off for refusing to perform an abortion on the basis of the gender of the unborn child.
Dr Mark Hobart has been a practising GP for nearly three decades. As a devout Catholic he refused the procedure for ethical reasons.
Duty to refer
State law permits abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, however doctors who object to the practice are obliged to refer their patients, which Hobart refused to do in this case.
On his refusal to refer the patients elsewhere, Hobart stated: “It's very wrong, I don't know any doctor in Victoria that would be willing to refer a woman that wanted to have an abortion just because of gender at 19 weeks.”
“I refused to refer the patient because there was no medical reason to do it and it offended my moral conscience.”
No complaint
Although the couple did not make a complaint against Hobart, when he went public with the story an investigation was launched by the Medical Board of Victoria amidst complaints from its members that he had allegedly “failed his patients”.
Support
Since the investigation was announced, there has been an outpouring of support for Dr Hobart from medical professionals and non-medics alike.
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