KUALA LUMPUR: Groups alleging that Health Ministry officials who visited Orang Asli villages and forced women to take birth control pills should provide evidence of this, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (pic).
The Health Minister said that such allegations must be backed with evidence before they could look into the claims.
"If there is proof, then we will look into it," he told reporters at Parliament on Thursday (July 11).
Dr Dzulkefly said that as far as he was concerned, ministry staff had followed Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) when treating patients.
"They are trained to do that – I find it odd there are claims that they (Orang Asli) were threatened," he said.
When asked if patients could be forced to take any medication, Dr Dzulkefly said that officials cannot force anyone to do anything against their consent.
It was reported that a Temiar villager had claimed that Health Ministry officials in mobile clinics who visited Orang Asli villages threatened the women there and told them that they must agree to birth control measures.
This was supposedly in the form of pills or injections.
The villager claimed that officials threatened to confiscate their medical cards if they failed to comply.
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