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Doctor at For-Profit Jail Forced Hysterectomies On Immigrant Women
This is sickening—and reflective of the worst moments in our nation’s history. Forced sterilization is a cruel tool of white supremacy with a long, abominable history in this country.
A whistleblower complaint filed September 14, 2020 by several legal advocacy groups accuses a detention center of performing a staggering number of hysterectomies on immigrant women.... details several accounts of recent “jarring medical neglect” at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, which... houses people incarcerated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In interviews with Project South, a Georgia nonprofit, multiple women said that hysterectomies were stunningly frequent among immigrants detained at the facility.
The "doctor" involved consistently recommended surgical intervention, even when it did not seem medically necessary. In almost every woman’s chart, symptoms were listed that the women said they never experienced or reported.
When I met all these women who had had surgeries, I thought this was like an experimental concentration camp,” said one woman, who said she’d met five women who’d had hysterectomies after being detained between October and December 2019. The woman said that immigrants at Irwin are often sent to see one particular gynecologist outside of the facility. “It was like they’re experimenting with their bodies.”
“We’ve questioned among ourselves, like, goodness, he’s taking everybody’s stuff out,” said Wooten, who was a full-time employee at Irwin until July. “That’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector. I know that’s ugly.”
Horrific. Crimes against humanity.
The complaint, filed on behalf of several detained immigrants and a nurse named Dawn Wooten, details several accounts of recent “jarring medical neglect”....
Wooten said she’d talked to several detained immigrants who’d had hysterectomies but didn’t know why.
In one case, a woman who ended up with a hysterectomy was not properly anesthetized....
We need a Congressional investigation into these heinous human rights abuses immediately.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/ice-hysterectomies-surgeries-georgia.html