S Africa ‘sterilised pregnantHIV patients without consent’

JOHANNESBURG: A South African inquiry into the forced sterilisation of dozens of HIV-positive pregnant women said Monday that their rights had been breached, and called for government action. The investigation was launched after two women´s rights organisations approached South Africa´s Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) in 2015 with 48 documented cases of coerced sterilisation. CGE obtained sworn affidavits from the complainants on the alleged procedures. “All the women who had lodged the complaint were black women who were mostly HIV positive,” CGE head Keketso Maema said in the report released on Monday on its inquiry. “Just before giving birth... they were coerced or forced to sign forms that they later learnt through various means were consent forms allegedly permitting the hospital to sterilise them.” The documented incidents took place between 2002 and 2015. Investigators found that hospital staff threatened to deny women medical attention if they did not sign the paperwork.