On a continent where AIDS and HIV are common, infected women who seek
medical services are being sterilized against their will. The Guardian
reported Monday that the International Community of Women Living with
HIV/Aids (ICW) is going to sue the Namibian government for at least 15
cases of coerced sterilization. There have also been reports of this
happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Zambia.

According to the article,
the ICW has recorded cases in which women who are minutes away from
giving birth are asked to sign consent forms to inhibit them from
having more children. What the women do not know is just what they are
agreeing to when they sign the form.

Jennifer Gatsi-Mallet, ICW’s coordinator, told the Guardian,

"They
were in pain, they were told to sign, they didn’t know what it was.
They thought that it was part of their HIV treatment. None of them knew
what sterilization was, including those from urban areas, because it
was never explained to them."

 

The article also said:

 

"After six weeks they went to the family planning center for birth
control pills and were told that it’s not necessary: they’re sterile.
Most of them were very upset. When they went back to the hospital and
asked, ‘Why did you do this to us?’ the answer was: ‘You’ve got HIV’."

 

Being
coerced into sterilization has many negative effects for women. Many
infertile women are shunned by their husbands and communities, and
those who have not been sterilized, forgo medical treatments at
hospitals for fear they will be sterilized.

 

"In African culture, if you are not able to have children, you are ostracised. It’s worse than having HIV," Gatsi-Mallet said.

 

According to the Guardian,

 

"African women aged between 20 and 34 have a higher prevalence of HIV
than any other social group; in South Africa one in three is infected.

On
average an HIV-positive mother has a one in four risk of transmitting
the virus to her child. With the latest antiretroviral drugs, the
probability can be cut to less than one in 50. But such medical
interventions are underfunded and inaccessible to millions of women
across the continent."

 

In
the upcoming lawsuit, the ICW will accuse the Namibian government of
encouraging doctors to sterilize HIV positive women to stop the virus
from spreading. The ICW requested to see the government’s official
guidelines regarding sterilizations, but the request was denied.

One
of the highlighted cases against the Namibian government is that of
Hilma Nendongo, 30, who is HIV positive. A few weeks after her son was
born, she was asked by a nurse, "Oh, did they tell you that you had
been sterilised?" Nendongo remembered signing forms before entering an
operating room for a cesarean section.