Spain responsible for violence against woman, UN body finds

Spain should offer reparations to a woman who underwent a caesarean section without her consent with her arms strapped down, a United Nations committee found on Thursday.

Madrid was found to be responsible for “obstetric violence” against an unnamed Spanish woman who said medics at a public hospital in Donostia, Spain induced her labour prematurely, without her consent, the committee said.

They then proceeded with a C-section without her husband present and did not allow her to immediately hold her newborn boy since she was still strapped down, it added.

Spain’s health ministry declined to comment on the case, but said a draft law approved in May would help promote good childbirth practices through a series of national and international guidelines.

Such violence against women in childbirth is widespread, systematic in nature, ingrained in health systems and can cause physical and psychological damage, the U.N. body found.

However, public investigations into cases are rare and one of the only precedents is another case where the same U.N. body also found against Spain in 2020. In a further case, Hungary was held responsible in 2004 for a woman’s forced sterilization after a miscarriage.

In the Donostia case, the woman suffered physical and mental trauma, the committee said. She was told by a Spanish court that doctors should decide on C-sections and that her psychological harm was simply a matter of perception.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women monitors states parties’ adherence to a convention on women’s rights which to date has 189 signatories. It is made up of 23 independent human rights experts.