A Reproductive Justice Analysis of ICE Practices Outlined in a Recent Whistleblower Report11/8/2020 By Roshni Varma Roshni (she/her) is a second year MIMG major with a minor in global health. She’s originally from San Jose, CA and is passionate about the intersection of health care and social justice including alterations to the American healthcare system as well as doing more for marginalized populations abroad. In her free time, she likes listening to music, spending time with friends and family, and baking! Reproductive justice (RJ) is a burgeoning field in academia that utilizes an intersectional lens to identify and combat the social, political, and economic forces that impede individuals’ capability to make independent and voluntary decisions regarding their sexuality and reproduction. RJ framework relies on safeguarding three basic interconnected rights: the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to raise children in environments free of state- and individual-based violence. There are two important considerations to keep in mind when conducting RJ analysis: first, it is necessary to center the stories and voices of the most marginalized individuals in our communities, because only when their rights are permanently secured have we actually attained a society that values RJ and bodily autonomy for all2. Second, RJ analysis mandates that rather than immediately blaming individuals for their circumstances, we consider the socioeconomic and political conditions that may have served as coercive factors of determinism in their lives.
With this in mind, we can turn our attention to a recent news story that, despite its shockingly inhumane allegations, was quickly forgotten by the public. On September 14th, 2020, Dawn Wooten, a nurse who has been working at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Irwin detention center for the past three years, filed a whistleblower report via two human rights legal groups (the Government Accountability Project and Project South) alleging that immigrants in this ICE facility have been subject to medical neglect, poor safety precautions, hazardous and unsanitary conditions, and high rates of non-consensual hysterectomies. An immigrant being held in the facility told Project South that “this place is not equipped for humans3.” Wooten’s account has been anonymously corroborated by several other nurses familiar with the facility’s practices. The inhumane conditions at ICE detention centers have been previously documented and are alarming in their own right, but this piece will focus on the particularly concerning practice of non-consensual hysterectomies; a hysterectomy is a procedure that removes the uterus, rendering an individual incapable of having children. Thus, to have this procedure when it is not desired is not only a clear violation of reproductive justice rights and bodily autonomy, but it elicits troubling memories of other times in human history that governments have attempted to control reproduction amongst certain populations. In the U.S. specifically, during the early 20th century, racism, xenophobia, and eugenics all crossed paths, resulting in “tens of thousands” of people of color, including Native Americans, being sterilized. In addition, in the 1970s, 1/3rd of all women in Puerto Rico were sterilized as an attempt at “population control.” There is an international consensus that these practices are highly immoral and not to be tolerated in any circumstance–to the point that the 1948 UN Conventions dictate that “imposing measures intended to prevent births” amongst a targeted group is an act of genocide. Of course, there is not enough evidence to make this claim about ICE facilities, but with this history in mind, it becomes clear that the gravity of the situation necessitates further investigation and action by branches of the government, human rights groups, and international organizations. There are some well-documented stories of non-consensual hysterectomies in ICE facilities. At Irwin county detention center in Georgia, Pauline Binam, a 30 year old immigrant from Cameroon, was having surgery to remove a cyst from her ovary; when she woke up after surgery, she was told that one of her fallopian tubes had been removed, making it unlikely she would be able to conceive children5. Ms. Binam is adamant she did not give consent for this procedure. Wendy Dowe, a 48 year old immigrant from Jamaica, was brought to a hospital in shackles and handcuffs and thus felt pressured to consent to a surgery. Dr. Mahendra Amin, Irwin detention center’s “primary gynecologist,” told Ms. Dowe her uterus had to be removed due to enlarged cysts. After the surgery and her deportation to Jamaica, Ms. Dowe found out that she actually had cysts of normal, naturally-occurring sizes that did not require surgical intervention. Moreover, Dr. Amin wrote in his notes that Ms. Dowe requested a second surgery–a full hysterectomy. Ms. Dowe says she made no such request. Yuridia, a 36-year-old immigrant from Mexico, was also told by Dr. Amin that she needed surgery to remove enlarged cysts. Once again, it was later found she actually had small cysts of natural sizes. Furthermore, Yuridia was expecting a minimally invasive vaginal procedure–she woke up to three incisions on her abdomen7. Dr. Amin has been accused in over 16 cases of performing or pressuring ICE detainees into unnecessary medical procedures. Five separate gynecologists reviewed the cases and found that Dr. Amin consistently overstated the size and dangers of ovarian cysts to patients; it is important to keep in mind that Dr. Amin is financially compensated for each procedure he performs7. Upon investigation by Congresswoman Jayapal, there were at least 17 examples of unnecessary medical procedures, including hysterectomies, being performed on women at Irwin5. One immigrant cited in the whistleblower complaint explains, “when I met all these women who had had surgeries, I thought this was like an experimental concentration camp. It was like they’re experimenting with our bodies5.” This is all at one detention center–there are over 200 ICE detention centers in the nation. These stories are not unique to Irwin, as Project South has already filed a similar complaint against Stewart detention center, also in Georgia5. Ultimately, the obvious violations of basic human rights at ICE detention facilities should be alarming to anyone. Bodily autonomy and reproductive justice form the basis of individual rights as every other right is contingent upon being able to make independent decisions free of coercion. The atrocities happening at ICE facilities will get swept under the rug by the government constantly, as they find it easy to blame immigrants for their circumstances. However, those who understand reproductive justice theory understand that it is important to consider the socioeconomic and political factors that are forcing individuals to uproot their lives and flee to other countries–ultimately making immigration a necessity for survival, not a personal decision. Secondarily, given that the occurrences happening at ICE facilities violate numerous domestic and international laws, it is necessary that these facilities be properly investigated by the government, international organizations, and human rights groups and that the systems allowing for such atrocities are entirely dismantled. These systems are far-reaching and permeate our society. What makes something like this possible is a combination of the lasting effects of colonialism, of an inaccessible medical system, of deeply rooted racism, xenophobia, and sexism, and of an economic system that values economic gain over human lives. To even begin fighting these systems involves rejecting them outright in every instance where they become apparent; there is no better place to start than here.
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