Forced Sterilization is Genocide

A Statement from Planned Parenthood Mar Monte

You have probably heard this week’s news of shocking medical neglect and forced sterilization of immigrants who are being detained by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), as outlined in the complaint of a nurse whistleblower at an ICE facility in Georgia. The nurse’s complaint reported, among other abuses, a dangerous lack of protocol to protect from COVID-19 -- and that immigrant women are having unnecessary hysterectomies without their knowledge or consent while in detention facilities.

This is monstrous.

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte proudly provides sexual and reproductive health care for immigrants and undocumented folks who are members of the community. We stand in strong solidarity with other human and civil rights groups in calling for an immediate Congressional investigation into these reports of heinous human rights abuses. If substantiated, those involved should be prosecuted and medical licenses revoked.

Some history
It’s important to acknowledge that these kind of medical violations being committed against communities of color as well as Black and Indigenous populations is nothing new in the U.S. As Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley said in response to the recent revelations about ICE facilities, “Forced sterilization is a cruel tool of white supremacy with a long, abominable history in this country.”

• The U.S. government launched campaigns of sterilization against Black women, particularly in the South, and Latinx women in the Southwest.
• Between 1909 and 1964, California sterilized about 20,000 people, making up a staggering third of all sterilizations nationwide.
• Starting in the 1930’s and for forty more years, nearly one-third of women in Puerto Rico were sterilized as part of a mass eugenic campaign.
• The genocidal policies of Nazi Germany resulted in forced sterilization.
• In the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Indian Health Services sterilized between 25-42 percent of Indigenous women of reproductive age who were seeking health care.
• And as recent as a decade ago, 148 female prisoners in two California state prisons were sterilized without adequate informed consent. As a result, the California legislature passed a bill (SB 1135) in 2014 that banned sterilization in correctional facilities, unless the procedure is required in a medical emergency to preserve the person’s life.

Sterilization has also been used as a weapon against people with disabilities, people living with HIV, people who are intersex, queer, transgender, poor, and was used as a then-legitimate tool of coercion in the criminal justice system.

Violations of immigrant women at the ICE facility
As documented in the complaint by the ICE whistleblower, a licensed practical nurse, one woman who is detained at the ICE facility and spoke with many others who were subjected to “stealth” hysterectomies, said, “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 bodies.”

The whistleblower also stated that, “Detained women expressed to her that they didn’t fully understand why they had to get a hysterectomy. She said: ‘I’ve had several inmates tell me that they’ve been to see the doctor, and they’ve had hysterectomies and they don’t know why they went or why they’re going.”

Further, this complaint adds to a long list of human rights abuses that are well-documented in ICE and ICE-contracted facilities, many of which are run by for-profit corporations. For years, immigrants have been subjected to a consistent pattern of human rights abuses at private and government-run detention facilities that include lack of medical and mental health care, due process violations, unsanitary living conditions, and more. At several of these facilities, immigrants have died because of care denied.

The Trump administration has refused calls to release immigrants from detention facilities, where it is impossible to socially distance amidst disgraceful conditions and where many detained people are afraid for their lives.

We will not stand by silently while this is happening which is why we are joining other organizations in calling for a Congressional investigation. At Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, our patients’ autonomy is paramount and their sexual and reproductive health care choices are always made while informed and with consent.

It is extremely important to me that you, our dedicated supporters, know that PPMM is committed to standing for the rights and care of every person in ICE facilities, any of whom could be one of our patients.

In solidarity,

Stacy Cross
President & CEO