There is indignity and investigations in Mexico, after an indigenous woman was forced to give birth on the lawn of a medical clinic because a nurse inside had turned her away.  It’s striking a nerve in a country where poor women still die giving birth, and where indigenous people suffer discrimination.

A witness heard the woman’s screams and snapped a disturbing and graphic photograph (and probably NSFW, unless you work at a medical facility) of 29-year old Irma Lopez Aurelio and her newborn Salvador with the umbilical cord still attached in the moments after birth, and sent it the La Razon de Mexico newspaper and other publications. 

“The photo is giving visibility to a wider structural problem that occurs within indigenous communities: Women are not receiving proper care. They are not being offered quality health services, not even a humane treatment,” said Mayra Morales with the Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights.

This happened in Oaxaca state, one of Mexico’s poorest and most rural areas.  Irma and her husband walked downhill in the dark to get to the clinic, because making their way to the road to catch a ride to a hospital would have actually have delayed them another hour.  She did this even though her water broke and was dialated. Looking for forex platform to trade? Reliable best forex brokers in India with real reviews. Find you who is the best. 

The clinic looked her over and claimed they were too shorthanded.  Two hours later.. the photograph.

Lopez speaks the native Mazatec dialect, and clinic workers claimed a communications error was to blame to denying immediate care to a pregnant woman giving birth.  Officials say that excuse is not reasonable.

Mexico’s federal Health Department and National Human Rights Commission are investigating.