Mexico queries US on alleged migrant hysterectomies

Protesters gather after a whistleblower claimed ICE performed unnecessary hysterectomies on women in their custody

Credit: Kyle Grillot/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock /Shutterstock

Mexico said Monday it had requested more information from the US on medical procedures given to migrants in detention centers, after allegations six detained Mexican women were sterilized without their consent.

Rights campaigners alleged two weeks ago that a number of hysterectomies had been carried out at a privately run detention center in the US state of Georgia.

The Mexican ministry of foreign affairs said it sent a diplomatic note "to clarify the situation, requesting information on the medical attention that Mexican citizens receive" at the Irwin County Detention Center.

The ministry said that consulate personnel have interviewed 18 Mexican women who are or were detained at the center, none of whom "claimed to have undergone a hysterectomy," an operation involving the removal of all or part of the uterus.

The department added that seven of the women interviewed had been treated by the doctor accused of performing the sterilizations.

Another of the women said she had undergone a gynecological operation, although there is nothing in her file to support that she consented to the procedure.

Nurse Dawn Wooten speaks at a news conference where she accused ICE of performing hysterectomies on immigrants who did not consent

Credit: Jeff Amy/AP

The women interviewed did not deny that they had been "victims of bad practices for different reasons," the foreign ministry said.

Mexico announced last week it was investigating the allegations of sterilizations, warning that such operations would be "unacceptable."

The allegations came from a whistleblower, a nurse at the center, where some detainees are held under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

The nurse said that detained women told her they did not fully understand why they had to get a hysterectomy.

Project South, the Georgia Detention Watch, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network filed a complaint to the government on behalf of detained immigrants and the nurse.

US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal has called for an urgent investigation into allegations that at least 17 women were subjected to unnecessary gynecological procedures that she called "the most abhorrent of human rights violations."