WUNRN
|
More
women are coming forward with stories of being sterilised |
JOHANNESBURG, 30 August 2010
(PlusNews) - Veronica* did not realize she had been sterilized while giving birth
to her daughter until four years later when, after failing to conceive, she and
her boyfriend consulted a doctor.
"I
was like 'Okay, fine', because there was nothing I could do by then, but I was
angry. I hate [those nurses]," she told IRIN/PlusNews. Veronica tested
HIV-positive during a routine antenatal visit and was given a form to sign by
nurses at the hospital where she went to deliver.
"I
didn't know what it was all about, but I did sign," said Veronica, who was
18 at the time and had been scolded by the nurses for being unmarried.
She
vaguely recalls being unconsciousness and then coming to and giving birth to
her daughter, but did not ask questions about the cut on her abdomen. "My
aunt - she's a nurse - went there and asked them what the cut was all about.
They didn't answer her; they said it was private and confidential."
Veronica,
who is now 28 and working for an HIV/AIDS home-based care programme in Orange
Farm, an impoverished township south of Johannesburg, is among a growing number
of women in South Africa and other countries in the region who have come
forward in the last few years with similar stories of forced or coerced
sterilization after an HIV-positive test result.
Local
rights groups in
"It
does appear that in
Similar cases have been uncovered in
Some of
the 12 cases she has so far documented occurred several years before prevention
of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services were available, but the most
recent took place in 2009, by which time public health facilities were using a
dual-antiretroviral therapy regimen that can reduce the risk of mother-to-child
HIV transmission to less than five percent.
Aside
from the availability of PMTCT, performing a medical procedure without informed
consent is a serious human rights violation and yet, according to Mushahida
Adhikari, an attorney at the Women's Legal Centre in Cape Town working with
Mtembu to compile cases with a view to taking legal action, "A lot of
women didn't know it was wrong that they'd been sterilized."
Mtembu
added that, "In many cases [the women] knew what they were signing, but
didn't feel like they had a choice."
Mtembu
and Adhikari hope to collect enough strong cases to take to
Often
the women do not want to go to court because they have not told their families
about being sterilized. Adhikari said the stigma associated with not being able
to have children could be as strong as being HIV positive.
Veronica
was quick to disclose her HIV-positive status to her mother, but still has not
told her about the sterilization. Her previous relationship ended after the
revelation that she had been sterilized, but her new boyfriend wants a child
and the couple is seeking advice about whether the procedure can be reversed.
Reversal
may be possible, depending on how the sterilization was performed, but the
procedure is difficult and too expensive for most of the women.
Veronica
said she "wouldn't be okay" if tests revealed her sterilization could
not be reversed, but had decided not to take legal action against the hospital
that performed the procedure. "It is late for me," she said.
"But for other women, I think they have to."