Dozens of HIV-positive S. African women forcibly sterilized

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A scathing new report reveals that dozens of HIV-positive women were forced or coerced into sterilization after giving birth at public hospitals in South Africa.

The Commission for Gender Equality’s report this week says it investigated complaints by at least 48 women of “cruel, torturous or inhumane and degrading treatment” at the hospitals. At times it occurred when women were in labor.

In many cases, “the hospitals’ staff had threatened not to assist them in giving birth” if they didn’t sign the consent forms for sterilization, the report says. The commission is a statutory body that operates as an independent watchdog.

The forced sterilizations at 15 public hospitals in South Africa between 2002 and 2005 have sparked public outrage. Some of the hospitals are in some of the country’s largest cities such as Johannesburg and Durban.

Read more: https://apnews.com/52ee51716a66d48d9871e0fbfc7bb6d4

[Nonhlanhla]

1. I'm not defending this

since it violates women's bodily autonomy, but I suspect that these actions have to do with the fact that the country does not have the means to provide all HIV positive people in South Africa (which has the highest rate of HIV in the world) with antivirals, which means that their children are usually born with HIV, and that the mothers will die while the children are still young, leaving them orphaned in an already overburdened system.

In short, a very difficult situation all around.

[abqtommy]

2. I hate Eugenics and Eugenicists.

[Nonhlanhla]

3. This is not eugenics in any traditional way

Again, not defending it. I just know the situation in SA well, and know where this is coming from. Eugenics would mean targeting certain racial groups by other racial groups, or something in that vein. Despite SA's history, that is not the case here. The issue is one of an overburdened system in the country with the world's largest HIV positive population. Many people, especially more rural ones, still continue to have large families even if they're ill, and in the end the children are left to fend for themselves when the parents die. In recent decades many children were raised by grandparents, but by now the next set of victims often don't have grandparents, since the previous generation had already been decimated by AIDS. There are households in African countries "led" by children as young as 7 because of the ravages of the AIDS crisis.

[abqtommy]

4. Thank you. You're entitled to your viewpoint. So am I. In my experience sterilization is a tool

associated with Eugenics and Eugenicists. Whether or not my opinion applies to SA/HIV I think my comment stands on its own.

[canetoad]

5. IMO, Nonhlanhla's comments

Are thoughtful and hopefully should provoke a reasoned discussion between educated adults.

It does no-one any favours when you employ a thought-terminating cliché without being prepared to expound upon your viewpoints.

[abqtommy]

7. I have all day so let the expounding begin! In my family we employ thought-terminating

cliches for good reasons...

[Nonhlanhla]

6. I actually agree with your fears

I don't agree with these actions, not out of fear of eugenics, but because of gender equality concerns. I do know, however, from my experience of SA, that there is deep concern about the AIDS crisis, and that especially rural women (although not only they) need some serious education about birth control etc. This is not the way, but it is understandable, and it's not easy to just dismiss the issue as one of eugenics.

[abqtommy]

8. My only experience outside of the media with SA was being at the Joberg airport

in transit to and from Botswana. However, when I encounter new information I try to frame it in terms that I already know. This is probably a technique that is more useful to me than anyone else and I usually find, as in this thread, that my understanding expands. That's a good thing, I think.

[Nonhlanhla]

9. Well, I grew up there

so my experience is a bit more extensive.

Sometimes having an understanding of context helps. Nevertheless, you are absolutely correct that forced sterilization is very problematic, no matter the context. It's just not, in this case, driven by eugenics concerns as much as by the system being overwhelmed by the AIDS crisis. South Africa has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world, and a crumbling infrastructure due to the mismanagement of the ANC under the previous Zuma administration, so the need to convince HIV positive women to stop having kids is very real. It's just that forcing them to do it is deeply troublesome.

[abqtommy]

10. I admit that I enjoyed my visit to SA/Botswana. I was there for a month and got acquainted

with many good people. That's an experience I've found holds true anywhere in the world.

I appreciate your extensive experience and I've found that my willingness to form opinions in the absence of the same extensive experience soon results in me acquiring extensive experience for myself. In spite of parsing words and our apparent difference of opinion I think we're close to agreement. Thank you.

[Nonhlanhla]

11. I appreciate your tone very much

You are able to differ with a sense of respect and I appreciate that. I do think we're in some agreement, albeit coming from different angles.

I've never been to Botswana - have always wanted to go, and spent lot of time in areas of SA close to Botswana. I love the climate and general feel there. The only SA neighbors I've visited are Namibia and Swaziland, and I loved both.

OK, now I feel homesick...

[abqtommy]

12. Thank you. Yes, let us be friends and discuss this and that without hate. There's already too

much of that around.

[riversedge]

13. I have been reading horrible things about South Africa lately Not all is well at all.