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Every year, thousands of women across Latin America suffer from obstetric violence. They are abused during pregnancy and/or childbirth, are denied treatment, or are subjected to medical procedures such as caesarean sections against their will. The laws of some countries regulate this type of violence against women, but despite this it is still very invisible and there is a lack of awareness campaigns to prevent it. This week, a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights v. Argentina (IACHR Court) marked a historic milestone in women’s organizations’ fight against this type of violence.
The court held the Argentine state responsible for violating the “right to life, personal integrity and health” of Cristina Brítez Arce, a 38-year-old woman who died on June 1, 1992 in the Ramón Sardá public maternity hospital in Buenos Aires. Air. The judges considered that her pregnancy presented risk factors that were not adequately addressed by Argentina’s healthcare system.
Brítez Arce went to the hospital with a fever and low back problems related to her pregnancy. When the professionals on duty performed an ultrasound, they determined the fetus was dead and admitted her to induce labour. On the same day, at six o’clock in the evening, the pregnant woman died of “non-traumatic cardiac arrest”.
This is the first time this court has found that obstetric violence is a form of gender-based violence prohibited by the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Elimination of Violence Against Women, better known as the Belem Do Pará Convention.
“The Court’s decision in the Brítez case calls for a transformation of practices, regulations, decrees and laws that facilitate or do not prevent obstetric violence, and many public policies must be encouraged to implement these standards developed by the Inter-American Court of Justice.” says Carmen Cecilia Martínez, associate director for legal strategies at the Center for Reproductive Rights (CDR) for Latin America and the Caribbean.
This organization trusts that the verdict will help curb these illegal practices and allow other victims to seek justice, as in the case of Peruvian Eulogia Guzmán and her son Sergio, also admitted by the Inter-American Court.
Guzmán is a Quechua woman living in a farming community in Peru. She gave birth to her first children at home according to her will and customs, but in 2003, on the day of the birth of her sixth child, medical personnel forced her to go to a health center and threatened her with fines for testimony. . During labor, a nurse prevented her from giving birth on the floor as she had always done and forced her to climb onto the bed. During the fight, his son Sergio was born and hit his head on the ground causing him serious health complications that lasted until his death at the age of 12.
The cases of obstetric violence that reach the courts are minimal, and there are few that reach public prominence. In Brazil, one of the most notorious was that of Adelir Lemos de Goes, 29 years old. In 2014, De Goes wanted to have her third child vaginally, having undergone two cesareans in her previous births. While she was in labor at her home in the rural community of Torres, she was picked up by armed police and a magistrate and forced into an ambulance, which took her to a hospital. There she was drugged and underwent surgery, which she disobeyed. Doctors forced her to give birth by caesarean because the baby was breech, but women’s rights groups condemned what happened as an attack on women’s autonomy.
In 2019, the United Nations made the existence of obstetric violence visible in its report “Human Rights-Based Approach to Abuse and Violence Against Women in Reproductive Health Services”, with a special focus on obstetric care and obstetric violence. In the document, the international organization pointed out that a cesarean section “performed without the woman’s consent may constitute gender-based violence against women and even torture.”
Venezuela was the first country in 2007 to enact a specific law dealing with violence in midwifery. Argentina joined in 2007 and later Panama, some Mexican states, Bolivia and El Salvador. Nevertheless, this type of violence is far from eradicated.
These are our recommended articles of the week:
“We will continue until this abuse is a thing of the past,” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini told thousands of protesters in Washington.
The professor announces that the President is appointing him ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and allegations of sexually harassing students return
Brisa de Angulo, who was forced to leave her country after being threatened, is celebrating what feminist organizations call “historic”.
Fawzia, a 17-year-old medical student, has been in hiding in Kabul for a month and believes fundamentalists used her information as a student to track her down.
The New Zealand PM has demonstrated an exceptional political ability to put herself in someone else’s shoes. We will miss you.
Latin American women who had to migrate to devote themselves to science are organizing to open up space and return their knowledge to their countries of origin.
Judge sends ex-Barça footballer to jail on fugitive risk, who denies sexual assault despite evidence collected by the Mossos.
And a final suggestion:
👩🚀 A story about women in space:
This week one of Hoy’s chapters in EL PAÍS, our daily podcast that breaks the news and analyzes current events, had a gem in store. It was this Friday’s conversation between Ana Fuentes and Javier Salas, a colleague from MATERIA, the science section of the newspaper, in which they reviewed some of the space achievements of 2022 and the projects expected for this year.
In the middle of the lecture the topic of women in space came up and Javier Salas gave a brief review of this interesting history that he knew well. This probably will not surprise anyone, but astronauts have faced many prejudices and barriers. In addition, these pioneers had to listen to unpleasant comments. For example, the second woman to go into space, Svetlana Savitskaya, was greeted in an apron and told the kitchen was at the back. Another astronaut, Sally Ride, was asked by her colleagues if 100 tampons would be enough for six days off Earth. Salas had told this story in this article in 2017, which is worth reading (or re-reading if they already did at the time).