Pregnant at 42 and with a history of miscarriages, Linda Wood of Yellowknife N.W.T. was expecting a new baby in March 1996.
When her pro-life family doctor moved away in the summer, she tried to find one who didn’t do abortions. She was convinced, she explains, that, “Anyone who kills babies one minute would hardly be in the right frame of mind to deliver mine the next.”
The new man appeared to expect her to obediently say, “Yes, doctor.” When he suggested amniocentesis, she balked. “Not if it is to find out if the baby is defective so an abortion can be arranged,” she said.
Because of her age, a Caesarian section might have been necessary. “I asked for an obstetrician who did not do abortions. He said he would check, but if there were no pro-life specialists available, I would just have to be happy under his care. If this would present a problem, then I required attention beyond his capability.”
It turned out that of the three ob-gyn specialists, the only one who didn’t do abortions was leaving in December. The hospital didn’t know when it would replace him.
She wouldn’t be able to request a pro-life specialist, even if one was available, her new doctor sad. She would have to take whoever was on call. Further, if she refused to be treated by an abortionist and it was deemed she needed his services, then they would conclude that she was not capable of making a decision – and they would make it for her!
“Are you saying I am not capable of making a decision when the reason we got into this issue is because I am trying to get the best medical attention I can for myself and my baby?” she inquired. Telling him she didn’t think he needed her as a patient to add stress to his life, she became determined to look for a new doctor.
Eventually, she found Dr. Michael Haskins, who is not an obstetrician but a pro-life surgeon and has a lot of experience doing c-sections. He told her he did not have the authority to work in ob-gyn without the hospital board’s approval. Wood set out to get it.
With some apprehension, she attended the board meeting. “It is obvious that I will soon be needing the services of the ob-gyn department of your hospital, but there is a problem: You do not have anyone on staff into whose hands I will entrust my baby’s life or my own,” she stated. She explained that studies have shown doing abortions affects doctors in many negative ways.
“I was not willing to take a chance on whether our local doctors might be affected. I urged them to hire another pro-life doctor to replace the pro-life obstetrician who had left. I told them that they claim that women have choice, but in the Yellowknife hospital, women do not have choices because they are forced to use the services of abortionists.
“I explained that I had gone to great lengths to find a specialist I could trust, one with my family’s best interests at heart. I told them that my doctor had said that I would not be able to choose my ob-gyn specialist, but would have to take whoever was on call, and this was simply not acceptable.”
When the board asked for more information about the effects of abortion on abortionists, Wood pointed out that the data was in the literature, but pro abortion feminists and doctors don’t want the information to get out. She gave the video The Abortion Providers to the administrator who said that the abortion issue would not be raised during hiring interviews.
“I pointed out that if the situation was reversed and the hospital only had pro-life ob-gyns applying, the administration would certainly be raising the issue. They did not deny this,” says Wood. “Then I told them that in the interests of equality, the women of Yellowknife expected to have access to pro-life specialists.”
Later, a reporter approached Wood for a statement. She talked to him only because she felt women needed to know they could demand pro-life choices. When he said a hospital spokesman suggested that she should have gone to her MLA, she said the hospital was trying to pass its problem on to someone else because it didn’t want to deal with it. “I was confronted with a hospital problem, so I went to the hospital board,” she said.
“What is next?” asked the reporter.
“I said, ‘It is my job to be a wife to my husband, a mother to my other four children, and to have my baby. It is the hospital’s job to hire the right doctor,'” Wood replied.
In the end, the hospital granted privileges to Dr. Haskins. On March 19, he presided over the c-section delivery of a healthy baby girl.
