New Report Details Abuses of HIV-Positive Chilean Women

The Center for Reproductive Rights and Vivo Positivo have released a new report, "Dignity Denied: Violations of the Rights of HIV-Positive Women in Chilean Health Facilities." The report is the result of 2009-2010 study that included interviews with 27 HIV-positive Chilean women and health care providers, visits to public health facilities, and a review of relevant policies on HIV/AIDS and reproductive rights.

The report provides accounts of coerced and forced sterilization of HIV-positive women, negative attitudes from care providers, including pressure not to have children, and structural barriers to care.

The organizations had previously filed a case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an international human rights body, on behalf of a Chilean woman who was sterilized without her consent during a cesarean. More information on her story is provided here; she explains:

I was in the recovery room of the Hospital of Curicó when [the nurse] entered and... told me that I was sterilized... It was not my decision to end my fertility; they took it away from me.

Unfortunately her story is not uncommon. For more information, check out the full report.