Dear Dr. Roach: I am a layman, but I disagree with your recent advice about the MMR vaccination specifically for a person without rubella antibodies. I am 73 years old. When I was 18, I caught rubella. Unfortunately, I was rooming with a young couple who were newly married, Catholic, and pregnant. The young wife caught the disease from me and, on her doctor's advice, had an abortion. It was heartbreaking. Perhaps there are new treatments now, but the risk then and perhaps now for passing on the disease can be horrific.

— H.W.

Dear H.W.: It affirms my faith in humanity that there are people who are willing to do something with little benefit for themselves in order to protect other unknown people. You are quite right that the biggest concern with rubella is in reproductive-age women, wh

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