Medical violence against women

By brett Submitted on 3 December, 2008 - 22:13

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Imagine this: a pregnant woman who is HIV positive goes to the hospital to give birth. It turns out she needs an emergency caesarian. The doctor tells her he will only do the procedure if she signs a form, agreeing to be sterilized at the same time, as he believes HIV positive women have no right to be having children. He tells her she won't have long to live, and she should not have any more children, only to leave them without a mother.

The woman doesn't want to be sterilized, but agrees, because she feels she has no choice -- she wants to save her baby. Her child is born, and turns out to be HIV negative. When her husband finds out she can't have any more children, he divorces her, leaving her to fend for herself.

Another HIV positive woman gives birth to her baby. Some months later she goes to the clinic for birth control pills. The nurse looks at her file and says "what do you need the pill for -- you've been sterilized." This is the first the woman has heard of it -- the operation was performed without her knowledge when she underwent a caesarian.

These stories are just some of the cases that lawyers at the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) in Namibia are dealing with. They're representing a number of HIV positive women who've had their right to motherhood taken away, either against their will, or without their knowledge. The LAC is taking the matter to court to try and secure some kind of redress for the women, and punishment for the doctors and nurses responsible.

They're also working with the International Community of Women living with HIV/Aids (ICW) in Nambia, planning a campaign to raise awareness that forced sterilizations are happening, with the aim of bringing an end to this shocking practice. They want to get stricter laws and policies in place, educate health care staff, and also educate women about their rights.

One of the biggest barriers to their campaign is the attitude of many doctors and nurses, who believe HIV positive women should not be permitted to have children. This attitude undermines the right of women to make their own decisions about motherhood, and to have control of their own bodies.

While the doctors tell women that sterilization is 'for their own good', the ICW members argue convincingly that forced sterilization amounts to gender-based violence.

We trust doctors to have our own health and best interests at heart. When they give us advice, we tend to believe what they tell us. But the women's stories of the violence that certain doctors have done to their bodies tell of a terrible betrayal of this trust.