Chilean with HIV denounces forced sterilization

A Chilean woman infected with HIV has petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) over being forcibly sterilized.

According to the petition submitted by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Chilean-based HIV/AIDS service organization Vivo Positivo, the 27-year-old woman was sterilized against her will at a state hospital immediately after she gave birth. The woman- identified by the initials F.S.- contended that doctors operated on her after they found out she had HIV and despite her never granting consent for such a procedure.

Apparently cases like the one F.S. had to go through are not rare in Chile:

Her case represents a country-wide problem within Chile, according to a 2004 study conducted by VIVO POSITIVO. The study found that, of the women living with HIV who were interviewed who had been sterilized, 29% of them had been pressured by medical staff to do so and 12.9% did not consent to the procedure at all. In addition, the study found that the majority of women had received biased counseling promoting the idea that women with HIV should not become pregnant, irrespective of the fact that, with the appropriate interventions, the risk of transmitting the virus to newborns can be reduced to less than two percent.

The case was brought to the IACHR after a local court ruled that the hospital’s actions were not criminal. Rather, the court mistakenly ruled that it was as a result of an “administrative omission”.

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Online Sources- Times of the Internet, El Maule, Houston Chronicle, emaxhealth.com