Krista and Jami Contreras, a same-sex couple married in Vermont in 2012, set up an appointment with Dr. Vesan Roi at Eastlake Pediatrics to care for their newborn daughter, Bay Windsor Contreras. Roi was highly recommended by the couple's midwife.
But when they showed up the appointment another pediatrician greeted them.
The new doctor told the mothers that Roi decided that morning that she wouldn't be able to take Bay on as a patient, because of the mothers' sexual orientation. Roi hadn't even come to the office to avoid encountering the family.
The new mothers were shocked, hurt and angry. Krista Contreras said the news took the two of them by surprise because Roi seemed friendly and nice when they first met in the fall.
"As far as we know Bay doesn't have a sexual orientation yet so I'm not really sure what that matters," Jami Contreras said. "We're not your patient -- she's your patient. And the fact is that your job is to keep babies healthy and you can't keep a baby healthy that has gay parents?"
Dr. Roi responded to the issue after the Contreras took their situation to social media.
"After much prayer following your prenatal, I felt that I would not be able to develop the personal patient-doctor relationships that I normally do with my patients," the letter read. "We do not keep prenatal information once we have our meetings so I had no way to contact you. I should have spoken with you directly that day...please know that I believe that God gives us free choice and I would never judge anyone based on what they do with that free choice."
Under current Michigan law, Dr. Roi has the absolute right to refuse to treat patients based on sexual orientation. "Under current Michigan law, a doctor has an absolute right to refuse medical treatment on the basis of sexual orientation," legal analyst Charlie Langton told CBS Detroit.
