Woman gives birth outside clinic after denied treatment

An indigenous woman squats in pain after giving birth, her newborn still bound by the umbilical cord and lying on the ground. It’s a photograph that horrified Mexicans because of where it took place: the lawn outside a medical clinic where the woman had been denied help, and it struck a nerve in a country where inequity is still pervasive.

The government of the southern state of Oaxaca announced it has suspended the health centre’s director, Dr Adrian Cruz, while officials conduct state and federal probes into the Oct 2 incident.

The mother, Irma Lopez, 29, said she and her husband were turned away from the health centre by a nurse who said she was only eight months pregnant and ‘‘still not ready’’ to deliver.