A midwife employed at a Phnom Penh health centre has been transferred to an administrative post amid allegations that she pocketed the payment for performing an abortion rather than handing it to the proper department, according to the Phnom Penh Municipal Health Department.

On August 2, a 29-year-old patient went to a health centre in the capital’s Sen Sok district seeking an abortion, which was performed by Hab Samlong, the department said on its Facebook page. However, Samlong allegedly took the money instead of submitting it to the finance department. Samlong couldn’t be reached.

The announcement said a team to investigate the incident was formed, but the department’s director and deputy director declined to comment.

The incident comes on the heels of repeated recent criticism of poor ethics among Cambodia’s medical professionals, including from Dr Beat Richner, founder of the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospitals.

Midwives are allowed to perform abortions – which are legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy – under the Abortion Law, but it remained unknown yesterday whether the abortion fell in that window.