A recent investigation by the South African government’s Commission for Gender Equality uncovered some harrowing details about what can happen when women are at their most vulnerable in a state hospital.

Their report found that, in a gross violation of human rights, a number of state hospitals in South Africa have, allegedly, been sterilising women without their consent.

The investigation was prompted by a complaint in 2015 by the Women’s Legal Centre, which documented 48 cases of forced or coerced sterilisation of HIV positive women when they went into hospital to give birth.

The story has made headlines all over the world. TIME reports that medical staff “breached their duty of care and subjected these women to inhumane treatment”.

Doctors and nurses told some of the HIV-positive women that they should not be having children and that they would die if they didn’t get sterilized following delivery. Many agreed to the procedure by signing forms they didn’t understand.

An affidavit recounts the response from one nurse, when asked what the forms were for:

“You HIV people don’t ask questions when you make babies. Why are you asking questions now?” the report quoted a nurse as saying.

“You must be closed up because you HIV people like making babies and it just annoys us. Just sign the forms, so you can go to theater.”

As Nasreen Solomons, from the Women’s Legal Centre, points out, there is no way of knowing how long this has been happening or how many women have been affected.

The number may be higher than they think as it appears that HIV is not the only reason that doctors will elect to forcibly sterilise. The BBC spoke to Bongekile Msibi, one of the women involved in the case, who was sterilised without her knowledge, but who does not have HIV.

I woke up after giving birth, looked down and asked: “Why do I have a huge bandage on my stomach?”

I did not mind. I had just given birth to my baby daughter. She was a big baby and I had been anaesthetised and gone through a Caesarean section.

She didn’t find out that her uterus had been removed until 11 years later when she went off the contraceptive pill to try for another baby.

[The doctor] examined me, sat me down, gave me a glass of water and told me I had no uterus.

I was devastated and confused. It did not make sense because I was already a mother.

I worked out my uterus must have been removed and the only time it could have happened was after I had given birth.

The Commission for Gender Equality says that their investigation is being hindered by the “disappearance” of patients’ files, and its investigators receiving a “hostile reception” from hospital staff.

Hospitals are barred from performing procedures without the full consent of the patient.

You can view your rights, in full, here.

[sources:time&bbc]