Emily Vassar

The Whistleblower: For the past several days, many of us have been trying to wrap our minds around the news of alleged forced hysterectomies of women detained not in Nazi Germany, but in the United States of America; not between 1933 and 1945, but in the year two-thousand and twenty. These allegations, along with ones of extremely poor efforts in mitigating the spread of Covid-19 within the facility, have been lodged against the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia by a nurse who was employed there. Since initially voicing her concerns with administrators, her employment was terminated. The facility is said to have cited a poor attendance record in relation to health concerns as the reason for ending her employment.

Through the Government Accountability Project, which provides legal representation for whistleblowers, who are protected under federal law, and Project South, a social justice organization, Dawn Wooten has officially filed a statement with the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General.

Adding their names to the complaint are the Georgia Detention Watch, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and the South Georgia Immigrant Support Network.

All of these voices stand and fight for human rights. This issue, if the allegations are substantiated, would not be political. This would be about the quality and preservation of life. If the impending investigation finds valid evidence to move forward with charges, the Pro-Life Movement, armed with all of the resources available to it, alongside those who support and campaign for a woman’s right to choose, should together hold the federal government, I.C.E, and the I.C.D.C. accountable.

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The Doctor

One doctor contracted with the facility is at the center of the allegations, but has not been named in the official statement made by Wooten and the co-signees, though lawyers representing some female detainees have apparently stated that their clients had in the past been brought to a local obstetrician-gynecologist named Dr. Mahendra Amin. Amin’s lawyer, Scott Grubman, has publicly expressed his confidence that his client will be cleared of any wrong-doing, which indicates that he may be the doctor in question.

Amin was previously accused by state and federal authorities of falsely billing Medicare and Medicaid. That investigation led to a $520,000 settlement in 2015.

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The Alleged Victims

Also not named, to protect their civil rights and privacy, are the alleged victims. The statement is said to accuse the doctor, apparently under the supervision of the facility’s authorities, of removing their uteruses under coercion or otherwise deceitful or irresponsible measures; one detained woman, scheduled to have an ovary removed due to problematic ovarian cysts, is said to have had the wrong one removed. She is cited saying that while she was waking up from the effects of the anesthesia, she heard the doctor say that he had removed the wrong ovary. The complaint details that the correct one was later removed, along with her uterus, which had not been scheduled for removal.

She herself is said to be heading for deportation, and that as someone who wanted to bear and raise her own biological children, she is now unable to. She will be sent home with the task of informing her husband that they will not be able to have the family that they dreamed of together.

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Women’s Rights Are Human Rights

To be clear, this is all, for the time being, speculation at the least and incomplete public information at most, as very little, if anything, has been corroborated, and details are murky at best. What is not murky is that if any of it is true, one heated question will be brought to the forefront of our conversations: whether a woman’s bodily autonomy, which is to say, her control of her physical self, is a human right. Is it above and beyond any federal law? Are we born with it?

The answer is undeniably, unabashedly, Yes. Moreso, it should not be a question at all.

To systematically violate any woman’s body, especially one who is marginalized, facing daily language barrier-based struggles, trauma and PTSD, would be an atrocity. The World Health Organization is clear in their ruling in such matters, stating that a forced hysterectomy is a human rights violation and an act of eugenics.

Whether they are a ward of the state residing in a mental health facility or an immigrant detained by I.C.E. in a federal or privately run detention center, no person should be further victimized by those tasked with their physical and mental care. Specifically in the cases of immigrants, so many have fled violence inflicted by governments, gangs, abusive partners and even family members. Any egregious treatment that many may have faced upon entering the United States is a further slap in the face, to put it very lightly but unironically.

Forced or coerced medical procedures are a form of oppression and violence. This is simply not up for debate. We voice shock and outrage at the stories that history provides; these recent allegations, if proven to be true, must not be met with any less outrage. They should, in fact, be met with more. We say that we learned from the mistakes of the past. If we had, these alleged violations would not take place.

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Take The High Road, Not The Bandwagon

Easily the most well-known instances of eugenics and experimental medical practices on detained people are, in fact, those that happened in the Nazi-operated concentration camps of World War II. It is easy to let ourselves jump to that imagery and compare it to what has been alleged to have happened at the I.C.D.C. If those in positions of power today have committed such atrocities, it is understandable to ask what would make them any different than the doctors of Nazi Germany who performed medical experiments on Jews, ethnic minorities, children and adults with developemental, psychological and physical impairments, and so many more. What would make them any different than the military personnel who ran the concentration camps and authorized and championed these brutal crimes? It is easy; I did it myself at the opening of this op-ed. But in the process of writing, I realized how damaging that can be. Before we know all of the facts, we must not jump to comparisons. There is just so little information available at this time.

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Keep In Mind

Whether she is a white suburban mother living comfortably on the cul-de-sac or an undocumented immigrant desparate for the chance at a better life, a woman’s rights are her human rights. If I.C.E. and the I.C.D.C. are found to have violated them, then they have violated her, and they have violated all women.