Karla Martínez religiously took her birth control pill every day at 10 pm.
That is why neither the delay in her period nor the nausea ever made her imagine that she was pregnant.
He was only 23 years old. He was studying and working in a fast food joint, called “Pedro, Juan y Diego”, in Linares, his hometown located in central Chile.
“I thought it was stress. I had just moved to live alone and that is why I believed that the symptoms were due to the changes, ”she tells BBC Mundo.
But one day his discomfort was so great that he decided to go to the hospital.
“Aren’t you pregnant?” the doctor asked. “Impossible,” she replied.
Just in case, he went on to buy a test.
It scored positive.
a life postponed
Karla Martínez is part of the more than 200 women who became pregnant in 2020 due to consuming defective contraceptives in Chile.
She was affected by failures in the Anulette CD pill, which was administered by the Chilean public health services, and manufactured by the Andrómaco and Silesia laboratories, of the German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal.
In addition to Anulette CD, in the South American country there have been problems with five other contraceptives in the last 3 years.
The latest case, related to the Marilow brand, from the Recalcine Laboratory, was notified by the manufacturer itself to the Public Health Institute (ISP) at the end of June of this year, noting a decrease in the potency of its active ingredients.
Currently, the first pregnancies are coming to light because of this failure.
These scandals have generated a great impact in Chile.
Feminist and human rights organizations have insisted on the profound consequences –both physical and psychological- that these errors have in the lives of the women affected, many of them with limited resources.
And it is that the vast majority had to postpone their studies and their future plans, quit their jobs and dedicate themselves full time to their children.
This is the case of Karla, who, when she became pregnant, was forced to return to live with her parents, on whom she now depends financially. The father of her daughter never wanted to take responsibility.
Karla’s situation is even more difficult because her daughter – who is 2 years and 4 months old today – suffers from chronic kidney disease, for which she must accompany her day and night since she is immunocompromised.
“What happened did not ruin my life because I love my daughter, she is the light in my eyes. But she did change her forever,” she says.
“And it’s unfair because I didn’t choose it. I didn’t want to be a mom right now,” she notes.
“No one has done anything”
In these last 3 years, many of the women who became pregnant have tried to obtain some type of reparation.
In 2021, the Miles Corporation -which defends sexual and reproductive rights- carried out a mediation process with the State Defense Council (CDE), which resulted in economic compensation from the laboratories for the women.
But that compensation was not enough for the victims.
“They compensated me with around 7 million pesos (US$8,200). At that time, I had enough to survive but today I have nothing left”, says Karla.
For her -and other victims- the outstanding debt is owed to the State of Chile, which, according to the Miles Corporation, not only made the mistake of providing a medicine without guaranteeing its efficacy, but also failed to alert them to this scandal and to give them a timely response.
“The State has been very silent and has stripped this problem from private companies, from laboratories,” lawyer Javiera Canales, executive director of the corporation, explains to BBC Mundo.
“It is part of the human rights of people to decide how many children to have and the spacing between them. In addition, it is required that the States have a supervision of the private ones. But both the previous government (of Sebastián Piñera) and the current one (of Gabriel Boric) have failed. Nobody has done anything, ”he adds.
Lawsuit against the State
Given this, the institution is preparing a lawsuit against the State of Chile that is based on the principle of violation of human rights.
“We are going to ask for non-repetition measures to ensure that this does not happen again: for example, a change in the traceability system to be certain who receives a certain medicine and thus be able to alert”, explains Javiera Canales.
In addition, based on international recommendations, the corporation will also ask that women affected by this type of error have the option of accessing an abortion.
Psychological support will also be requested from the mothers and in the schooling of the children, as well as financial compensation.
BBC Mundo contacted the Chilean government to ask for its version of what happened.
From the Ministry of Women they sent a written statement in which they assured that work has been carried out to “implement different measures to prevent situations like these from recurring, with a focus on improving safety in the manufacture, sale and delivery of pills contraceptives”.
They also indicated that communication campaigns have been carried out on the use of contraceptives, their quality and effectiveness.
The testimony of Valentina Donoso, one of the women who is suing the Chilean State:
I got pregnant at 20 years old.
I had always taken care of myself with birth control pills, never had any problems.
Suddenly, I realized that I hadn’t had a period for almost two months. And I felt nauseated.
My sister-in-law told me to take a test and it came out positive.
I couldn’t believe it, I felt so bad.
I thought about having an abortion, but I was already almost 12 weeks old when I went to the doctor because I found out late. In addition, in Chile it is illegal and doing so is a serious crime.
When my daughter was born, my life changed completely. I had to assume a very big responsibility.
I used to work as a salesperson in an electronics store and had to quit. I thought about studying, but I also had to put those plans aside.
After the birth I suffered a lot. I was depressed, I went to the psychologist and the psychiatrist, I took antidepressant pills.
I wanted to die. To kill me
Sometimes, I would see her crying and I didn’t feel like taking her.
I also cried a lot. In the afternoons it gave me anguish, I was irritable. I did not want to have this responsibility.
My daughter’s father, who was a friend, wanted to take over. I’m lucky on that.
Today, my daughter is 2 years and 3 months old, and she is the joy of my life. But it’s unfair because it wasn’t my choice to be a mom. It was a mistake. But it was not my mistake.
Now I decided to get sterilized. I couldn’t trust the contraceptives.
“It’s not a cross-cutting issue”
In view of the repeated cases of contraceptive failure in Chile, the problem is no longer isolated.
Several authorities in that country agree on this, who have expressed their concern about the lack of guarantees regarding the quality and safety of a drug as important as this one.
Jorge Cienfuegos, president of the College of Chemists and Pharmacists, explained to the newspaper La Tercera that “this phenomenon does not occur in other countries.”
“Neither the FDA (United States), nor the EMA (European Union), nor Anvisa (Brazil) have had market recalls of this type of medication. So it is not an international or transversal issue, which makes us suspicious about the quality of the products that are delivered”, he pointed out.
Although it is not known exactly how many Chileans have become pregnant due to these failures (a calculation that is practically impossible since there is no exact record of who consumed the defective pills), the Miles Corporation calculates that with only the first case of Anulette DC, there were more than 350.
In other cases, it is believed that there are many more as there were more damaged pills.
Today, Karla is trying to get her life back on track.
She plans to take a course in eyelash treatment so she can earn some money to support her daughter. But she doesn’t know if she will have time.
For her, a repair is urgent. Not only because of the damage they did to him but also to set a precedent going forward.
“If I could have chosen the moment to be a mother, it would have been much later… they forced me to be a mother,” she reflects.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/ckvy0ggle8yo, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-08-25 11:40:07
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