The High Court ruled Monday that the government had coerced three women infected with H.I.V. to agree to be sterilized after giving birth, the Southern Africa Litigation Center said. By pushing the women to agree to sterilization while they were in labor and in severe pain, the government had violated their rights, the court said. The three women who brought the case will be awarded monetary damages, the court said, but the amounts have not been fixed. Transmission of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, from mother to infant during childbirth was once common, but has been drastically reduced with antiretroviral drug treatment
