Journey received this interesting letter during the month. Because it reveals the all too typical wickedness of our day, we decided to publish it.

It has been brought to my attention in recent weeks that many doctors are being quite unethical in their treatment of people who do not wish to deny life to their unborn handicapped infants.

One such incident involves a couple I know who found out during the wife’s seventh month of pregnancy that their baby has hydrocephalous. Her local obstetrician quickly suggested that he terminate the child’s life. He could induce labor and strangle the child with its umbilical cord.

When the couple replied that they chose to have the child and care for it, the doctor was appalled. Many times he questioned their decision. He insisted on terminating the child’s life and suggested that they try to conceive again and have a normal child. He seemed determined to change their minds.

The couple has since been sent to a hospital with doctors more equipped to handle their situation. They assumed that they would finally find out how to care for their handicapped infant. They wanted to know what could be done to correct some of his problems after birth. Instead, after visiting four different physicians, they have received little information about the neonatal unit and its equipment.

During visit after visit they have met a barrage of doctors pressuring them to end the infant’s life. “The best way,” they were told, “would be to puncture the infant during an amniocentesis, let it bleed to death, and then induce labor.”

In a second incident, a hospital department head in a nearby large town became pregnant at age forty. She was urged to have amniocentesis; it would be wise to know if her child would be born with a handicap. In that way, she could prepare for it emotionally and have treatment readily available.

When she went to have the test , she was asked to sign a form stating that she would abort her child if it did have a severe handicap. Refusing to sign the form, she was denied the amniocentesis and severely reprimanded by several obstetricians. The pressure did not stop. She was treated as if . she were mentally unstable for desiring to raise a possible handicapped child.

In recent weeks as I have thought about these incidents, something in addition to the issue of denying life to the unborn has disturbed me. If a woman wanted to abort her baby and was continually being counselled to give birth to it , many pro-choice people would shout “Harrassment!” But in just the opposite situation, no one seems to think she is being harassed. Yet the woman who needs to hear about available treatments for her child is constantly being reminded of ways available to kill that baby she wishes to raise.

I hope that knowing of these incidents will alert Journey’s readers to the fact that abortion is not just suction of embryos and first trimester fetuses. It is legal up to the day a baby is born and is being advocated strongly and persistently to people who want no part of it.

By Jody Philbeck Gravely is a freelance writer from Martinsville, Virginia.

Reprinted, by permission from Journey Magazine, September/October, 1986.