Health ministry probes claims of women told to get ‘tubes tied’

 

The health ministry is to investigate claims of women being pressured into having tubal ligations done. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The health ministry is to investigate claims in anonymous audio recordings that pregnant women had been allegedly pressured into getting their “tubes tied” at a public hospital in the Klang Valley.

“The allegations are serious. We will speak to the relevant parties,” said a spokesperson for the ministry, who spoke to FMT. “Appropriate action will be taken.”

The audio recordings, in Tamil, have been shared via chat messaging and social media. Two men alleged separately they had been told that women had been subjected to pressure from hospital staff to have a tubal ligation, in which their fallopian tubes are blocked to prevent pregnancy.

Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming said he would like to meet the complainants to help them, as he was not aware of such incidents happening in his constituency. He said he would need to know who made the voice recordings to verify the authenticity of the complaints, which were very serious if true.

In one recording, an unidentified man said that his wife came under constant pressure from hospital staff when she was admitted to give birth to their second child.

In a separate clip, another unknown man said this had happened to some of his friends and even to women who were childless. “Even if the women say they want to discuss it with their husbands, the hospital staff asked them to decide immediately,” the man said. - FMT