An Indonesian official has been ridiculed after she warned women that they could get pregnant from swimming in the same pool where men with “very strong” sperm ejaculate, according to reports.
Sitti Hikmawatty, a senior child protection official, made the unscientific claim in an interview last week with the local Tribunnews.com, according to Agence France-Presse.
“In a swimming pool, there’s a certain kind of sperm that is very strong,” Sitti told the news outlet during a video interview about teen pregnancies.
“If a person is aroused and ejaculates (in the pool) a pregnancy can happen even though there is no sexual penetration,” she said.
Sitti added: “If women are in a phase where they are sexually active, [such a pregnancy] may occur. No one knows for sure how men react to the sight of women in a swimming pool.”
Social media users reacted to her comments with a mixture of mockery and calls for her resignation.
Twitter user @KomikFaktap posted a “Jaws”-inspired image, replacing the great white shark emerging from the depths with a school of wiggling sperm – as well as the title “AWAS,” Indonesian for “watch out.”
“The importance of proper sex education,” KomikFaktap wrote in the caption, according to The Jakarta Post.
Health influencer Blog Dokter told his 1.7 million Twitter followers that “swimming with the opposite sex will not cause pregnancy,” the Independent reported.
“Not all men who swim ejaculate and sperm cannot live in chlorinated pool water, let alone swim into the vagina,” he added.
Indonesian Doctors Association executive Nazarpregnan concurred.
“The water in swimming pools … contains chlorine and other chemicals. Sperm cannot survive in these conditions,” she said, according to The Jakarta Post.
Amid the backlash, Sitti apologized and retracted her statement.
“It was a personal statement and not from the KPAI,” she said in a statement, using the acronym for the Indonesian Child Protection Commission.
The KPAI also distanced itself from her previous comments.
“We hereby state that KPAI’s understanding and attitude are not reflected in the online news narrative,” Chairman Susanto said in a statement.
“This should serve as a lesson for all officials to be extra careful when they make public statements,” Susanto, who goes by one name, told AFP on Thursday.
A three-member government commission has been assembled to decide if Sitti, a former university professor, will be sanctioned.