Madrid, Spain, Jul 22, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Association of Abortion Victims (AAV) in Spain are responding to calls from pregnant women infected with AIDS who are being pressured by health officials to procure abortions, despite the fact that new treatments have brought about a reduction in the chances of the virus being passed on the fetus.
The AAV referred to the case of a 23 year-old woman “who has been pressured this year because she is HIV-positive and she wants to continue her pregnancy by taking the necessary medical treatment to prevent her baby from contracting the virus.”
The woman became pregnant “after she had already become HIV-infected and the chief doctors and gynecologists of the Hospital in her area pressured her not to have the child.”
“They told me to get an abortion because they said the baby was going to be born HIV-positive for sure, that he would be deformed and that he would be a monster,” said the mother, who decided not to kill her child and instead sought medical treatment throughout the pregnancy.