Doctor made me abort my baby - woman said she got bad advice

Having bore three beautiful girls, Mavumba Benet* was hoping to get her prince in 2009 when she got pregnant again.

But after it was revealed that she was living with HIV, Benet's doctor advised her to terminate the pregnancy as he claimed that the baby would contract the disease.

Not knowing better, Benet heeded the advice and has been living with regrets ever since.

"I was about a month and two weeks into the pregnancy, and he said that you will have to do an abortion because the baby will catch it," Benet recalled. "We didn't know anything about HIV, so we agreed."

According to Benet, she terminated the pregnancy two days later at a medical facility in the Corporate Area.

GETTING THE DISEASE

"After the abortion, he recommended me to a doctor who specialised in HIV and when I met him (the specialist), he asked me if I am still pregnant and I told him no, 'the doctor said that it would be best for me to terminate'," Benet recalled. He said: "How can he tell you that and he knows that there are steps to prevent the baby from getting the disease."

Abortion being an illegal practice in Jamaica, Benet and her partner cannot take legal action against the gynaecologist.

She said: "I was invited to a meeting organised by Jamaica AIDS Support shortly after that and when I saw the number of women who had HIV and were pregnant, I just broke down and cried."

Benet said her reason for coming forward with her story after almost 10 years is because she wants to make sure what happened to her, never happens to anyone else.

She said, unbelievably, the medical fraternity in Jamaica still discriminates against people living with HIV.

* Name changed