RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the US state of Georgia, a growing number of women are reporting to attorneys and human rights organizations that they were subjected to unwanted gynecological procedures at the privately operated Irwin Co. Detention Center (ICDC), some 300 kilometers southeast of Atlanta.
The incident was triggered a week ago when nurse Dawn Wooten reported massive human rights violations within the facility and at the hospital that serves the detainees.
Wooten, who is now a whistleblower for the civil rights organizations Project South and Government Accountability Project, stated that a doctor has performed at least 20 hysterectomies (removal of the uterus) on detained women over the past six years.
“Just about everyone he sees gets a hysterectomy,” Wooten explained. “I have learned from several women detainees that they have been to the doctor, that they have had a hysterectomy and that they do not know why they were there. Several women said they did not have access to qualified interpreters and the medical staff often did not speak Spanish”.
One detained immigrant told Project South that she spoke with five women in the facility who had had a hysterectomy between October and December 2019 and who “reacted confused” when she asked about the exact circumstances.
The US media has since gathered several reports from witnesses and victims supporting Wooten’s allegations. They accuse gynecologist Mahendra Amin, who practices near the ICDC and is known as “the uterus collector” among the detained women.
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal reported that she spoke with three attorneys representing women at the Irwin Immigration Detention Center who confirmed to her that other colleagues represented 17 or 18 more women who were forced to undergo the procedure.
Mileidy Carpentey, a 39-year-old Cuban woman who is now represented by female attorneys, claims to have been treated for alleged cysts. However, one month later she is still unsure which medical procedure was actually performed on her. The ICDC has sent her over 100 pages of medical records, but nothing concerning the day of the procedure.
Pauline Binam, who migrated from Cameroon to the USA at the age of two, had already spent two years in detention at the ICDC in 2019 when she experienced menstrual disorders. Dr. Amin had explained to her that he would be removing tissue from her uterus. But after the operation, he told her that he had removed one of her fallopian tubes because it was inflamed. “She was shocked and confronted him with the fact that she had not given her consent,” said her attorney, Van Huynh.
Amin explained to The Intercept news website that he performs operations on migrant women who have been removed from the facility. But in order to do so, he would require the detention facility’s consent. In the past two or three years, he had “only performed one or two hysterectomies”, said Amin.
However, attorney Andrew Free, who represents several of the affected women, believes that the procedure is systematic. “There are indications that there is a lack of informed and legal consent to perform these procedures,” he told AP news agency.
Mexico’s Secretary of State Marcelo Ebrard described the reported forced sterilization of Mexican and other migrant women as “unacceptable” and called for “punitive measures” should they be confirmed.
Mexico’s consular service in the United States has already spoken with six women who “may have been affected by this procedure” and will initiate further contacts this week, said Ebrard at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s daily press conference.
On September 17th, the State Department reported that the consulates in Atlanta and El Paso (Texas) were investigating “a number of unauthorized hysterectomies of Hispanic women” in the Irwin and El Paso immigration detention centers. They had requested “detailed information” from the US authorities regarding these women’s uterus removal.
Politicians in the USA are now demanding action. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, recalled the history of forced sterilizations of black and indigenous women in the US. In a letter to the Inspector of the National Health Service, Joseph Cuffari, 168 members of Congress called for an investigation into the allegations.
In some cases, interviewing the affected women could be difficult. Many women were deported to their home countries after the medical intervention. Neither the US government, nor the competent Department of Homeland Security, or the private company that runs the detention center has so far commented on the matter.