Nurse files complaint about high number of hysterectomies carried out at ICE facility in Georgia
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A career nurse who worked at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Georgia has registered an official complaint with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), alleging an extraordinarily high number of hysterectomies have been carried out on Spanish-speaking detainees at the facility, Forbes reports. Dawn Wooten’s complaint was filed with the DHS Office of the Inspector General by four Georgia advocacy groups on Monday.
The introduction to the 27-page complaint filed by Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network explains that Wooten, a licensed practical nurse employed by ICDC “raises red flags regarding the rate at which hysterectomies are performed on immigrant women under ICE custody at ICDC.”
In an interview with The Intercept on Tuesday, Wooten estimated that hysterectomies were carried out on around 20 women in the last six years. While not naming the doctor concerned during the interview, Wooten said: “Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy — just about everybody. 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,” Wooten explained. “People ask you why I got a hysterectomy. I couldn’t explain it. The only thing I have to say is that I’m sorry,” she said.
Commenting on the allegation in a statement to Forbes, ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams said: “ICE takes all allegations seriously and defers to the OIG [Office of the Inspector General] regarding any potential investigation and/or results. That said, in general, anonymous, unproven allegations, made without any fact-checkable specifics, should be treated with the appropriate skepticism they deserve.”
On Monday, Georgia State Rep. Bob Trammell wrote to the Georgia Composite Medical Board and the Georgia Board of Nursing requesting that they launch a “full investigation” into the allegation, and that they immediately suspend the licenses of those named in the complaint pending the outcome of that inquiry.
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