RESUMO
PIP: The author of this critique is a family physician who was asked for an abortion referral. His patients said that she wanted an abortion because she suffered from a chronic disease which required constant medication (she feared that the baby would be harmed by this circumstance). The physician consulted a geneticist and a perinatologist and assured the woman that neither the disease nor the medication should harm the fetus. Then the woman confessed that she was a single mother and wanted the abortion because of socioeconomic distress. The physician told the woman he could not refer her for an abortion but that others could. After he left the consulting room, a nurse told him that the woman, who was in tears, wanted to talk to him again. He gave her the name of an antiabortion counseling agency and suggested that he meet with her again in a week. She never returned. The usual response of a physician to a woman desiring an abortion is to give her a referral to an appropriate facility where she will receive counseling to determine if she really wants the abortion. Abortion is not rare in the US. Since 1975, abortions have been performed at an almost constant rate of 354/1000 live births. The present system of abortion on demand fails to place enough weight on the values of self-sacrifice or on communal sharing of hardship. Rather than performing abortions based on expediency, physicians must offer women with unwanted pregnancies community counseling and access to social resources.^ieng
