South African Hospitals Forcibly Sterilized Pregnant Women, Government Commission Says

Gauteng is one of the provinces in South Africa where hospitals were implicated for conducting forced sterilizations on HIV-positive women. (Flickr)

Dozens of HIV-positive women were forcibly sterilized after giving birth at state hospitals in South Africa, according to a report released by the South African Government’s Commission for Gender Equality on February 25. 

An investigation began in 2015 when the Women’s Legal Centre submitted a complaint documenting 48 instances of women being coerced into sterilization procedures in the Gauteng and Kwazulu Natal provinces between 2002 and 2015.

In many cases, women were forced to sign the agreements because health care professionals had “threatened not to assist them in giving birth.” The forms were often presented when the complainants were suffering from “extreme labour pain,” and the women were frequently told that they would die without the operation.

Other women did not know that the procedure even took place. One victim “was never told what exactly had happened to her” and only learned that her fallopian tubes had been cut after she went to a private doctor to inquire about her lack of fertility a few years after the operation. Another woman, Bongekile Msibi, was sterilized after giving birth at 17, and only learned that her uterus had been removed when she went to a private doctor 11 years later.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture commented that forced sterilization is a “gross human rights and medical ethics violation” and described it as an “act of torture, cruelty, and inhuman and degrading treatment.”

In addition to being HIV-positive, all of the victims described in the commission’s report were all black.

South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world, with 7.7 million people living with the virus. HIV has infected 20.4 percent of South African adults, and it disproportionately affects women, who make up 62.7 percent of cases. The prevalence and devastating impacts of the disease have led to a stigmatization of individuals living with HIV and AIDS in the country, particularly black women. 

Many of the victims were humiliated by the hospital staff if they refused to sign the forms or asked for clarification. One of the complainants explained that when she asked what the forms were for, the nurse responded by saying, “you HIV people don’t ask questions when you make babies. Why are you asking questions now? You must be closed up because you HIV people like making babies and it just annoys us.”

The commission noted that its investigation into the Women’s Legal Centre’s complaint was delayed because it was hampered by the “disappearance” of patients’ files and the refusal of hospital staffers to cooperate. The commission referred its report to the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which litigates against health care practitioners. It also urged the South African Health Ministry to end the practice and compensate the victims.