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Chiapas is one of the few Mexican states where obstetric violence can be sanctioned in criminal court. Obstetric violence which can include, but is not limited to, routine episiotomies, coerced Cesarean sections or forced contraception at childbirth happens at the intersection of several power relations between patients and health personnel. For poor women and indigenous women, obstetric violence is another expression of the structural violence they experience on a daily basis. In this article, based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Chiapas between 2013 and 2015, I analyze the difficult application of the obstetric violence law in practice. Based on the account of three women, I interrogate the conditions of expression of informed consent in Mexican public maternity wards.