A Michigan baby was rejected by her pediatrician because of who her parents are. The doctor, Vesna Roi of Roseville, MI, said that treating the child would violate her religious beliefs.
When Krista and Jami Contreras took their newborn daughter, Bay, for her first check-up at Dr. Roi’s office, they were met by another pediatrician who explained Dr. Roi had changed her mind about accepting the baby as a patient because the child’s parents are lesbians.
The couple, who married in 2012, had met with the pediatrician before their daughter’s birth. At that time, Dr. Roi had expressed no reservations about treating their child. After the couple learned of the doctor’s rejection, Dr. Roi sent them a letter in which she described how she had prayed about the matter and decided that she would not be able to build a proper doctor-patient relationship with the family because the parents are lesbians.
The Contreras family eventually found a pediatrician willing to treat their daughter, but many stunned community members have expressed their displeasure by calling the medical office where Dr. Roi works. Although the physician did not do anything technically illegal, many have said that the pediatrician’s refusal to treat a child based on who her parents are is unethical.