French report recommends mandatory HIV testing for pregnant women

A new report by the French Academy of Medicine, published on 7 May 1997, recommends that HIV antibody testing, which is currently "proposed" to pregnant women, should become "mandatory." The report’s author, Profesor Roger Henrion, a gynecologist-obstetrician, believes that making testing mandatory will allow all pregnant women, as well as their future children, to benefit from the progress in AIDS therapies and in science’s understanding of the virus.

A 1992 report by the Academy had made the same recommendation, but according to the report, its "poor acceptance" was supposedly due to the (false) belief that the "only solution" for HIV+ pregnant women is "abortion."

Anecdotal figures from HIV workers are that AIDS organizations in France which deal with children find that "70% of the mothers are African women." French AIDS organizations like AIDES have, in the past, documented the practice of involuntary testing of African and Maghrebi pregnant women. The rate of (presumed) "acceptance" of the test (for all pregnant women) cited by the report is already 90%. According to Henrion, 40% of women learn of their HIV status during their pregnancy.

While we know since 1994 that AZT can reduce the HIV transmission rate from mother to fetus by two-thirds, this has nothing to do with the question of who decides whether a pregnant woman should take an HIV test: the government and the doctors, or the woman herself?

MAHA is absolutely opposed to all forms of mandatory HIV testing. Any HIV test must be based on individual decision and informed consent.

Given the existing, documented violations of informed consent of African and Maghrebi pregnant women, current practice in French hospitals constitute a de facto racist and sexist policy of targetting African and Maghrebi women, assumed to be potential HIV carriers, for mandatory or even forced testing.

What’s needed is not to officialize current practice, but rather to make HIV testing a real choice, to guarantee that the latest treatments are available to undocumented "sans-papière" women (pregnant or not), and for public health to recognize the importance of supporting to African and Arab women’s self-help projects, like Nanas Beurs, Voix d’Elles Rebelles, MODEFEN, and others which inform and support pregnant women not only about HIV but about all health issues.

There is obviously much more to criticize about the Henrion report. MAHA will publish a series of articles on immigrant women’s right to AIDS care in France, the U.K., and elsewhere. The September 1997 print edition of the newsletter will carry articles about the response by Third world women’s organizations to the Henrion report in France.

For more info, please contact MAHA.