Pediatrician Refuses To Give Check Up To Baby of Lesbian Couple in Michigan

A pediatrician in a clinic in Roseville, Michigan, has stirred controversy after she refused to check up a baby of a lesbian couple, instead passing the appointment over to a colleague because she felt she would not be able to "develop the personal patient-doctor relationship that I normally do with my patients."

Jami and Krista Contreras of Oak Park, Michigan, brought their baby, Bay Windsor Contreras, to Eastlake Pediatricis for a check-up with Dr. Vesna Roi, who has been practicing pediatrics for 19 years, according to The Detroit Free Press.

But they were left stunned when another pediatrician attended to them and told them Dr. Roi would not be seeing them.

"I was completely dumbfounded," Krista, the biological mother, told the Detroit Free Press. "We just looked at each other and said, 'Did we hear that correctly?' .... When we tell people about it, they don't believe us. They say, '(Doctors) can't do that. That's not legal.' And we say, 'Yes it is.'"

The couple said they are telling their story to raise awareness of the treatment that some in the LGBT community experience.

Michigan does not have any law prohibiting discrimination against LGBTs.

In a letter to the Contreras couple, Dr. Roi apologized to them and said, "I never meant to hurt either one of you."

"After much prayer following your prenatal, I felt that I would not be able to develop the personal patient-doctor relationship that I normally do with my patients," Roi wrote. "I felt that was not fair to the two of you or to Bay."

She added, "I felt that you deserved that type of relationship and I know you would get that with Dr. [Melinda] Karam."

Roi said when she found out on the morning of Feb. 9 that they were coming to the clinic, she "made the decision that it would be better for Dr. Karam to see Bay."

She said if she saw them and told them her reason personally, "it would take away much of the excitement" and she regretted it.

"That was my mistake," she continued. "I should not have made that assumption and I apologize for that. I should have spoken with you directly that day."

Roi assured that that "you were always welcome in our office and I assumed that you would continue care at our office with Dr. Karam."

"Please know that I believe that God gives us free choice and I would never judge anyone based on what they do with that free choice," she added. "I hope you can accept my apology."

The Contreras couple decided not to sue Roi.