JEDDAH, 7 May 2004 — The Maternity Hospital here has said it acted in good faith in performing an abortion without asking the father’s consent.
A local newspaper reported that Ahmed Z. took his wife to the hospital’s emergency room, where he was asked to sign a release form. When he saw that the reason for admission was “abortion”, he refused to sign, convinced the operation was unnecessary.
After his wife was examined, the doctor told him she was stable but needed to stay in the hospital for further tests, according to Al-Madinah newspaper. When the man came to the hospital the next day, his wife told him the abortion had already been performed.
He complained to the hospital’s medical director, who told him the release had been signed by his mother-in-law.
Z. told the paper he had given all his contact numbers to the hospital in case he was needed and threatened to file a formal complaint.
He said doctors assured him they would perform a number of tests and provide a full report on her condition detailing the reasons for the abortion.
When he returned the following day he found that his wife had been checked out by her father.
He asked the police to request an official report from the hospital and to summon his father-in-law, but there was no response from either.
But the hospital’s public relations director denied the hospital misled the husband.
Ali Al-Farsi told Arab News that Z’s wife was admitted in critical condition.
“We explained the situation to the husband but he refused to understand, insisting that she did not need an abortion,” he said.
Before performing the operation, the hospital contacted all her family members, including the husband, but he was uncooperative, Al-Farsi said.
“The operation had to be done to save her life,” he added. In Saudi Arabia abortion is allowed only if the mother’s life is in danger. The husband’s consent is not required.
Al-Farsi said it was sufficient the woman had been discharged into her father’s care.
“It is not the hospital’s place to interfere in family matters; what we are responsible for is the patient’s health,” he said.
