By Brandon Tynes
What do you do if you found out that your aunt, who came to America illegally 20 years ago and ended up staying, was stripped of her ovaries and thrown into a dungeon-like room never to be heard from again? Does anyone know what they would do? It sounds like a bad science fiction movie plot when you say it out loud. Here is to hoping that this type of situation is actually fiction.
What is a fact, however, is that on September 15, 2020, there was a letter sent to the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, in which there was a concern of “jarring medical neglect” in regard to the treatment of detained women at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Ocilla, Georgia. More specifically, the writer was “horrified to see report of mass hysterectomies performed on detained women in the facility without their full, informed consent.”[1] Note that ICDC is ran by LaSalle Corrections, which is a private prison firm.[2]
Medically, unless you have health issues along the lines of uterine fibroids, endometriosis, hyperplasia, or cancer,[3] you wouldn’t be someone that’s in the pool people that would need such a procedure. However, according to a 48-year-old illegal immigrant who found herself in ICDC, none of those were brought up when she was seen by the “outside gynecologist” employed there. The gynecologist insisted that the pain she was experiencing was due to “large cysts and masses that needed to be removed.” The woman was brought to the hospital in “handcuffs and shackles” and “felt pressured to consent.”[4]
This is quite a jarring thing to think about especially in this surveilled age. It is almost unbelievable that something as extreme as this can go under the radar. That being said, this was back in the middle of September, and it is now past the middle of October. In a statement made by Dr. Ada Rivera (the medical director of the ICE Health Services Corps) the agency “vehemently disputes the implication that detainees are used for experimental medical procedures” and that statement is just fine.[5] But still, who is/are the mysterious gynecologist(s) employed by ICDC putting these women under the knife without their consent?
[1] http://jayapal.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/DHS-IG-Letter-9.15.pdf.
[2] http://www.lasallecorrections.com
[3] http://www.idph.state.il.us/about/womenshealth/factsheets/hyster.html
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/ice-hysterectomies-surgeries-georgia.html
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/ICE-hysterectomies-whistleblower-georgia.html