The State of Chile offered this Thursday a public apology to Francisca, a woman who was sterilized without her consent after giving birth in a public hospital for being a carrier of the HIV virus.
Francisca, as she is known by keeping her identity confidential, gave birth to her son in 2002 in a public sanatorium in the city of Curicó, almost 200 km south of Santiago, when she was 20 years old, already diagnosed with be seropositive. During the cesarean section, she was sterilized by the doctors without her consent.
“Start by apologizing to Francisca (…) for the serious violation, violation of your rights and also for the denial of justice and for all the time you had to wait for this,” said the president of Chile, the leftist Gabriel Boric , as a representative of the State, in the public act of acknowledgment of international responsibility held in the presidential palace of La Moneda.
“How many people like you do we not know?” The president asked about the cases that are not public of similar situations of ostetric violence and discrimination.
The case of Francisca, who was not present at the reparation act, was brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Vivo Positivo in 2009 after the State did not allow her access to justice or reparation for her complaint. .
– Discrimination for living with HIV –
Francisca “during her pregnancy check-ups was diagnosed with HIV. She took measures to reduce vertical transmission to the fetus and gave birth by cesarean section. During this procedure, the medical staff performed a surgical sterilization on her without her consent, and based on stereotypes. of gender, considering it irresponsible for a woman with HIV to have more children,” the Center for Reproductive Rights explained in a statement.
The note adds that “Francisca was discriminated against for living with HIV and without asking her, while she was anesthetized, a medical team decided to limit her autonomy and take away her reproductive capacity.”
In 2021, Chile signed a Peaceful Settlement Agreement in which it accepted its international responsibility for the human rights violations committed in this case.
The IACHR rapporteur for Chile, Joel Hernández, pointed out that the violation affected “personal integrity, judicial guarantees, protection of honor and dignity, freedom of thought and expression, protection of the family, equality of the law and judicial protection”, of Francisca and her son.
Carmen Martínez, from the Center for Reproductive Rights in the United States, replied to Francisca’s words that she asked them to read on the spot:
“People who carry HIV continue to be looked down upon (…) I want to believe with conviction that this will change, that the same mistakes as in the past will not be made again, that no woman will be sterilized without her consent,” indicated Francisca’s letter read on the spot.
