Rights Advocates Call on Mexican Hospitals to Prevent Poor Women from Giving Birth in Street Adriana Gomez Licon - Associated Press
go to original March 27, 2014

This disturbing photo of Irma Lopez, 29, squatting in pain outside a Mexican health clinic after giving birth without help from the staff caused outrage after appearing on the front page of La Razon de Mexico in October, 2013. (La Razon)

MEXICO CITY — Women's rights advocates sought international help this week in ending what they call a pattern of poor indigenous Mexican women being turned away from hospitals while in labor, forcing them to give birth on lawns, patios or parking lots.

Activists working in villages in southern Mexico say they have documented at least 20 recent cases of women giving birth outside hospitals whose staff claimed there was no room. Photos and video of some incidents posted on social media sites have prompted outrage in Mexico and around the world.

Mexican health officials have said the cases are isolated and unavoidable due to overcrowding and limited resources at some rural health centers. But women's advocates told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that they believe there a systemic problem of prejudice and callousness toward indigenous women in the Mexican public health system.

"These are not isolated cases. We have a pattern. We are not talking about one woman. There are many and nothing is being done to solve the problem," said Regina Tames, director of the Reproductive Choice Information Group, a non-governmental organization based in Mexico City.

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