HIV mums ‘forced into sterilisation’

DOZENS of HIV-positive women were forced or coerced into sterilisation after giving birth at public hospitals in South Africa, a new report has claimed.

The Commission for Gender Equality said it investigated complaints by at least 48 women of “cruel, torturous or inhumane and degrading treatment” at the hospitals. In many cases, “the hospitals’ staff had threatened not to assist them in giving birth” if they did not sign the consent forms, the report said.