173 House members including speaker Nancy Pelosi have called for an immediate investigation into allegations by a whistleblower that ICE is essentially conducting forced hysterectomies on detained immigrants at a for-profit prison in Georgia.
According to the Huffington Post, a letter has been drafted and sent to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general Joseph Cuffari calling for an “urgent response” and a briefing on September 25 into accusations from this Whistleblower that a doctor she dubbed the “Uterus Collector” has already performed a number of medical procedures (including hysterectomies) on unsuspecting women detained by ICE at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Ocilla, Georgia.
It should be noted that Pelosi’s name wasn’t on the letter as the Speaker prepared her own statement calling for an investigation into the “appalling” accusations.
I’m sure that strikes fear into ICE…
“We are horrified to see reports of mass hysterectomies performed on detained women in the facility without their full-informed consent and request. Everyone ― regardless of their immigration status, their language, or their incarceration ― deserves to control their own reproductive choices and make informed choices about their bodies,” wrote the lawmakers led by Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). “We request that your office immediately open an investigation to thoroughly examine allegations raised.”
In addition to all this, the Whistleblower Dawn Wooten, a nurse who formally worked at the Georgia facility also claims that officials at ICDC created “unsanitary conditions” with “jarring medical neglect” while not taking proper steps to either stop or limit the spread of COVID-19 a the facility.
When it comes to the hysterectomies though, Wooten alleges that detained women were regularly sent to an off-site gynecologist who would either remove some or all of their uterus. Furthermore, the complaint also makes mention of accounts from other anonymous immigrant women who reported their own concerns regarding the hysterectomies to Project South, a human rights group that helped file the complaint. Additionally, one woman attributed the actions undertaken by the staff at the ICDC as contributing to an “experimental concentration camp”.
It’s also believed that a number of women are completely unaware of what is happening or what they’re agreeing to due to language barriers. Wooten highlights women at the facility telling her that “they’ve been to see the doctor and they don’t know why they went or why they’re going.”
Qanon supporters who want to #SaveTheChildren and evangelical Christians alike who go off about abortion I’m sure will chalk this up to hyperbole from the left. However, the United States has a pretty sizeable history when it comes to forced medical procedures — including involuntary hysterectomies given to marginalized people and minorities in the Country. Between 1900 and 1970, up to 70,000 people in the United States (mostly women) underwent forced sterilization under the pretext of eugenics. Ironically enough, this was happening during the rise, climax, and fall of Nazi Germany who practiced some of the same sterilization techniques to groups of people they deemed “unfit” to have children including the non-white, poor, mentally ill, and/or disabled.
This goes without saying that Wooten’s allegations are incredibly disturbing but yet it may be equally as disturbing that once again a strongly worded letter and/or stern words is the only opposition mustered by members of Congress.