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TORONTO — A Toronto hospital’s refusal to reduce a woman’s twin pregnancy to one fetus — at least partly because of a doctor’s moral objections — has triggered a human-rights fight over the little-known but contentious procedure.

The Ottawa-area patient had been warned that carrying twins at her age could increase the risk of losing the whole pregnancy, and was referred to Mount Sinai Hospital for a “selective reduction.”

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That means terminating at least one among multiple fetuses, akin to a partial abortion.

But the institution declined to provide the service, saying its practice was to only reduce triplets or more, unless one of the twins has some kind of anomaly.

It was very much a judgmental and ill-thought and essentially disrespectful reaction … I was literally in disbelief.

A terse email said the procedure was available in the United States, without specifying where exactly.

Mount Sinai later said the “conscience of the clinicians” at the hospital would not let them eliminate one of two healthy twins.