Japanese Woman Forced to Take Pregnancy Test Before Flight to U.S. Island Gets Apology from Airline
A Japanese woman ordered to take a pregnancy test in an airport bathroom before flying from Hong Kong to the U.S. territory of Saipan finally got her apology from the airline that required the test.
In a statement to NBC News, Hong Kong Express Airways admitted its role in the disturbing November incident first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week.
“We would like to apologize unreservedly to anyone who has been affected by this,” the statement said.
“We took actions on flights to Saipan from February 2019 to help ensure U.S. immigration laws were not being undermined,” the airline said, claiming it was acting on concerns raised by officials in the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. commonwealth that includes Saipan.
“We have immediately suspended the practice while we review it,” the airline said.
Midori Nishida, 25, was checking in last November when airline staff demanded she take the pregnancy test before boarding, WSJ reported.
She was escorted to a public bathroom and handed a strip to urinate on, the newspaper said.
The airline initially said the unusual and invasive demand was part of a “fit-to-fly” assessment.
Saipan reportedly has become a popular destination for so-called “birth tourism,” since babies born in the territory become eligible for U.S. citizenship.
In both 2017 and 2018, more live births were attributed to tourists visiting the Commonwealth for the Northern Mariana Islands than births attributed to permanent residents.
In 2018, for instance, 582 babies were born to so-called “tourist” moms while 492 were born to permanent residents, health officials in the region said.
The vast majority of the babies were born to Chinese moms, with the mothers visiting the region for “a short period of time, usually several weeks, to deliver their baby,” the officials said.
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