Call to Action: Investigate Whistleblower Complaint on Unwanted Hysterectomies Performed in ICE Detention Centers

A former nurse at an ICE detention center has filed a whistleblower complaint about both insufficient prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and the number of women in custody receiving hysterectomies. The complaint identifies concerns with the frequency, lack of sufficient consent, and questionable necessity of the gynecological procedure performed by one doctor in particular. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed an investigation will proceed. 

To do:

Contact your members of Congress to let them know you are both aware of and concerned about the troubling allegations noted in the whistleblower complaint and that an independent investigation must proceed. In less than five minutes, you can submit a letter via our website thanking your elected representatives who have publicly demanded an investigation as well as prompting those who have not. You have the option to either write your own letter or answer some short prompts to have a personalized letter created for you. Go HERE to submit a letter.

Background:

We at Mormon Women for Ethical Government have long been concerned and, at times, outraged at the reported abuse occurring in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. Guards have allegedly sexually assaulted and harassed immigrants. Detainees have made claims of receiving inedible food, some of which made them sick or disregarded religious dietary restrictions. Border stations have been dangerously overcrowded, and lawyers have said detainees have lacked access to showers, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap. An ICE investigation found that medical care in these facilities has failed to meet applicable standards of care in numerous ways.

But even more alarming is a recent whistleblower complaint made by a nurse working at an ICE facility in Georgia. In her report, she indicates that improper and unsafe practices may have led to the increased spread of COVID-19. Moreover, she reports the performance of numerous unnecessary hysterectomies without informed patient consent.

The decision to have a hysterectomy should be fully understood by an individual undergoing such treatment. The whistleblower complaint indicates that these women did not fully grasp the gravity of the procedures and may have been informed using Google Translate instead of a qualified translator to convey the medical information essential for decision-making. 

The complaint also alleges that the number of women receiving hysterectomies was abnormally high for the facility — and through the care of one doctor in particular. These details certainly raise concerns that the procedures were not medically necessary and that the patients were not all adequately informed about said procedures.

Forced sterilization, or hysterectomies performed without sufficient consent, is considered a war crime and, thus, any claims should be carefully and independently investigated. In addition, forced hysterectomies are an attack on the family, which we hold to be a sacred institution. An individual should be scrupulously informed and clearly consenting before undergoing a procedure that impacts the ability to bear children and, thus, impacts the future of that family unit.

Our country has not always upheld the sanctity of bearing children among all members of our society. First people, people of color, and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been particularly targeted for forced sterilization throughout U.S. history.

We again affirm the necessity of treating immigrants in the care of ICE and any other government institution with the dignity and rights they deserve as human beings.

If these troubling allegations are true, the abuse would violate multiple MWEG Principles of Ethical Government, including:

2(c) All people are entitled to equal protection and due process under the law and to be free from arbitrary deprivation of their life, liberty, property, and privacy. Criminal justice and national security institutions must be designed in ways that preserve and uphold those rights for all people equally (see D&C 101:77).

2(e) The family is the fundamental group unit of society and also has the right to respect and protection under the law.