Brazil Just Became the First Country Ever to Pay Reparations for a Maternal Death
Brazil became the first country in the world to acknowledge and act on its responsibility for safeguarding maternal health as a human right when it paid reparations this week to the mother of an Afro-Brazilian woman who died in childbirth.
“Brazil is acknowledging its international responsibility for the death of Alyne and for not providing quality healthcare services without discrimination,” said Mónica Arango, Latin America and Caribbean regional director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which provided legal representation for the woman’s mother in the case.
The 28-year-old woman, known only as Alyne, died in November 2002, five days after she initially sought medical attention in what doctors had already dubbed a high-risk second pregnancy. She was turned away without medical treatment. She returned for care two days later and was admitted after doctors found the fetus had died but only after a lengthy delay.
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