Airline makes female passenger take pregnancy test ahead of flight
<p><span>A Hong Kong airline has apologised after it demanded a passenger take a pregnancy test before allowing her to board a flight to the US Pacific island of Saipan.</span></p>
<p><span>25-year-old Japanese citizen Midori Nishida was checking in for a flight at Hong Kong International Airport when a staff from the low-cost airline Hong Kong Express asked her to take a pregnancy test as part of a “fit-to-fly” assessment.</span></p>
<p><span>Despite having marked on a check-in questionnaire that she wasn’t pregnant, the staff escorted Nishida to a washroom and handed her a pregnancy test, barring her from boarding until the test came back negative.</span></p>
<p><span>Nishida told the <em><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ticket-passport-pregnancy-test-flying-to-saipan-can-be-complicated-11578664961">Wall Street Journal</a> </em>that the experience was “very humiliating and frustrating”.</span></p>
<p><span>The airline indicated in the permission form that the test was required for women who are “observed to have a body size or shape resembling a pregnant woman”.</span></p>
<p><span>It was reportedly part of Hong Kong Express’s response to immigration concerns in Saipan. The island, the largest of the US commonwealth Northern Mariana Islands, is a popular destination for birth tourism, allowing foreign nationals to ensure their babies become American citizens.</span></p>
<p><span>There is <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/saipan-birth-tourism-airlilne-pregnancy-test-intl-hnk/index.html">no federal law</a> banning pregnant foreign citizens to enter the country or give birth on US soil. </span></p>
<p><span>“We would like to apologise unreservedly to anyone who has been affected by this,” the airline said in a statement. </span></p>
<p><span>“In response to concerns raised by authorities in Saipan, we took actions on flights to Saipan from February 2019 to help ensure US immigration laws were not being undermined.</span></p>
<p><span>“Under our new management, we recognise the significant concerns this practice has caused. We have immediately suspended the practice while we review it.”</span></p>
