Common forms of mistreatment include humiliating comments and non-consensual surgery. Covid-19 may be making matters worse
! This is the most important day of your life.” The midwife was upbeat. But Agustina, a 38-year-old comedian and brand-new mother, was shaken. It was 2012; she had just undergone a Caesarean section at a hospital in Argentina. Her obstetrician, she believes, had made the surgery more likely by inserting hormones into her vagina during a check-up, without explanation.
Such abuse is, perversely, a consequence of progress. Better health care reduced maternal and infant mortality. Yet it also reinforced a culture that treats doctors as infallible, patients as passive and medical intervention as the first resort, even when harmful or against a woman’s wishes. Covid-19 may make the problem worse.
There is little evidence the laws are working. Few governments release data on implementation. The Mexican states of Tlaxcala and Morelos, among the five where abuse was most prevalent, according to the national survey, reported receiving no formal complaints, says the Information Group on Reproductive Choice, a nonprofit. Courts have been reluctant to go after doctors unless they have physically harmed the mother or baby, in part because other misdeeds cannot be proved using medical records.
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