Australian doctor could be struck off after refusing to carry out abortion on woman who didn't want to have a girl

Mark Hobart approached by Indian woman who was 19 weeks pregnant

She asked for an abortion because she and her husband wanted a boy

Dr Hobart refused and did not refer them to another doctor

He is now under investigation over claims he failed his duty to patients



An Australian doctor could be struck off for refusing to abort a baby girl because the child's parents only wanted to have a boy.



Mark Hobart said the couple's request to terminate the 19-week-old foetus 'offended my moral conscience' and refused to consider carrying out the procedure.



But officials claim he had a duty to refer the couple to another doctor for help and advice - and now he could have his medical licence revoked following an investigation into his conduct.



Controversy: GP Mark Hobart refused to abort a 19-week-old foetus whose parents did not want to have a daughter (file photo)

Dr Hobart, 55, has been practising as a GP in Sunshine, a suburb of Melbourne, for nearly three decades.



He revealed earlier this year that a couple of Indian origin had asked him to abort their unborn daughter because they only wanted a boy.

The doctor, who is a devout Catholic and a former activist in the conservative Democratic Labour Party, refused the request for ethical reasons.



However, under Victoria state law abortion is permitted up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and doctors who object to the practice are obliged to refer their patients elsewhere.



Dr Hobart claims he does not know any doctors who would agree to perform a sex-selective abortion.



Home: Dr Hobart, a devout Catholic, works in the suburbs of Melbourne, pictured

'It's very wrong, I don't know any doctor in Victoria that would be willing to refer a woman that wanted to have an abortion just because of gender at 19 weeks,' he told Nine News .



'I refused to refer the patient because there was no medical reason to do it and it offended my moral conscience.'



But when he went public with his story in April, the Medical Board of Victoria launched an investigation following a complaint from board members that he had failed his patients.



Officials told him in a letter that his 'professional conduct' had been questioned, although neither the woman herself nor her husband lodged a complaint against him.



Dr Hobart said: 'I think it demonstrates the problem with abortion law that stops doctors from using their conscience whether it is appropriate or not.'



The woman underwent an abortion with a different doctor a few days after seeing her GP.



However, when she became pregnant again this year she decided not to find out the sex of the baby before it was born.

