While women living with HIV like any other women who are not HIV-positive share similar sexual and reproductive health rights that should be observed by all stakeholders, this study – “Violation of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of women living with HIV in Clinical and Community setting in Uganda” found that women living with HIV experience a wide range of violations in clinical settings, their homes as well as in their communities.
During a community dialogue that included women living with HIV, a medic in disbelief said it was not possible that a doctor sterilized a woman living with HIV without consent because it is unethical.
But a testimony by a women living with HIV who had been forcefully coerced quickly silenced her and removed any thinking that the injustice in a myth.
She said, “My husband passed away just before I gave birth to our first child. As I went to the labour ward, I knew that I would go back again after mourning my husband and getting involved with another man. Unknown to me then, that was the last time I would go to labour ward as a patient. After giving birth by caesarian, the doctor took it upon himself to sterilize me. I discovered this a while later when I went for a scan in an attempt to find out why I was not getting pregnant. Years later, it still hurts like I have just found out. I do not know what I would do to the doctor who did this to me if I laid my eyes and hands on him,” she narrated.
Women living with HIV have the right to determine how many children to have, when to have them and which family planning method to use.
Coerced and forced is an injustice that should end.
By signing this petition, you are sending a message to the Government of Uganda to guarantee the right of women living with HIV to SRHR information services and to end forced and coerced sterilization of women living with HIV.
#MyFertilityMyChoiceMyRules
