| As if 2020 could get any worse. On September 14, reports emerged that immigrants in an ICE detention centre in Georgia are allegedly being coerced or tricked into hysterectomies without their consent. The revelation came from a whistleblower named Dawn Wooten, a former nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center. According to the BBC, the facility houses immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In her complaint, which was filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, Wooten expresses concern over the high number of hysterectomies she says are being performed on Spanish-speaking women while in custody. “We’ve questioned among ourselves like, goodness he’s taking everybody’s stuff out…That’s his speciality, he’s the uterus collector,” Wooten said in her complaint. The nurse also further alleges that detained women told her they didn’t fully understand why they had to get a hysterectomy and that the centre’s doctor removed the wrong ovary from one young detainee. These are horrifying claims. Here is everything you need to know about the allegations of coerced hysterectomies and forced sterilization. Because it’s a thing, and it happens in Canada, too. |
