(Photo credit: AOL.com)
A 27-page complaint was filed against a Georgia immigration detention center for allegedly performing questionable mass hysterectomies, refusing to test detainees for COVID-19, and shredding medical records.
The complaint also details a number of other concerning allegations pertaining to the ethics of the center’s protocols.
This complaint is spearheaded by a former nurse at the facility, Dawn Wooten, a licensed practical nurse who was employed by Irwin county detention center for three years, who saw the alleged atrocities first-hand and submitted the complaint to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.
At the center of the claims is the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, which houses immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is run by LaSalle Corrections, a private company that operates similar facilities in three southern states.
Among the most disturbing of Wooten’s allegations are those of sketchy hysterectomy surgeries, a procedure in which part or all of the uterus is removed, being performed on Spanish-speaking immigrants.
According to Wooten, many did not appear to understand why they had undergone the procedure, and in one case the gynecologist mentioned, but not explicitly named, removed the wrong ovary from a young immigrant woman’s body — rendering her unable to carry a child.
“For years, advocates in Georgia have raised red flags about the human rights violations occurring inside the Irwin County Detention Center,” said Priyanka Bhatt, a staff attorney at Project South, in a statement.
“Ms. Wooten’s whistleblowing disclosures confirm what detained immigrants have been reporting for years: gross disregard for health and safety standards, lack of medical care, and unsanitary living conditions at Irwin.”
(Dawn Wooten /Photo credit: MSNBC screenshot)
Top congressional Democrats are now calling for a federal investigation into the matter after Wooten’s report of “jarring medical neglect” and concerning information about a gynecologist referred to as “the uterus collector.”
Yes, you read that correctly, “the uterus collector.”
“If true, the appalling conditions described in the whistleblower complaint, including allegations of mass hysterectomies being performed on vulnerable immigrant women, are a staggering abuse of human rights,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“This profoundly disturbing situation recalls some of the darkest moments of our nation’s history, from the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks, to the horror of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, to the forced sterilizations of Black women that Fannie Lou Hamer and so many others underwent and fought.”
This whole fiasco is also reminiscent of the horrible liberties that some doctors, scientists, and government officials take towards the bodies of women of color.
Dr. J. Marion Sims was a gynecologist in the 1800s who purchased Black slave women and used them as guinea pigs for his untested surgical experiments.
He repeatedly performed genital surgery on Black women WITHOUT ANESTHESIA because, according to him, “Black women don’t feel pain.” Yet, despite his inhumane tests on Black women, Sims was named “the father of modern gynecology.”
According to the Journal of Medical Ethics, although anesthesia had already become available, Sims did not use any anesthetic during his procedures on Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy.
According to Sims, it was not yet fully accepted into surgical practice and he was unaware of the possibility of the use of diethyl ether.
However, ether as an anesthetic was available as early as the beginning of 1842. A common belief at the time was that Black people did not feel as much pain as white people, and thus did not require anesthesia when undergoing surgery.
But you might be saying to yourself, “that was in the past.” Well, the numbers are even more frightening now.
Data shows that 1 in 3 women will have their uterus removed before they turn 60. After several studies, the data also shows that many women who had a hysterctomy did not need it.
It is the second most common surgery in reproductive-aged women and, yet, there are so many that are performed unnecessarily.
Wayne State University and the University of Michigan conducted a study on over 3,400 women who had hysterectomies.
They found that 1 in 5 of these women had surgery for conditions such as endometriosis and fibroids. These are benign conditions that usually do not require a hysterectomy for treatment.
They also found that 2 out of 5 women who had hysterectomies before they turned 40 were unnecessary.
Wooten is represented by the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization, and Project South, a social justice advocacy group.
A coalition of human rights groups incorporated her declaration into a broader 27-page complaint filed with the DHS Office of Inspector General on Monday on behalf of Wooten and immigrants detained at the facility.
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