DeGette calls for investigation of alleged hysterectomies on immigrants

After a whistleblower complaint made public this week about alleged nonconsensual medical operations performed on detained immigrant women, Denver Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is calling for the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general to investigate.

"If true, the severe medical neglect that allegedly took place at this ICE facility is unconscionable and constitutes a blatant disregard for human life," said DeGette, along with U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., in a statement.

The two are the chairs of the Pro Choice Caucus. Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network filed a complaint with Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari this week about the privately run detention center in Irwin County, Ga.

Prism first reported that Dawn Wooten, a nurse at the facility, and several unnamed detainees alleged that an outside doctor performed a high rate of hysterectomies on detained women, sometimes without full understanding.

"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," Wooten said.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, whose district includes a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, said that if the claims were true, they equated to "crimes against humanity."

ICE told NPR that the agency "vehemently disputes the implication that detainees are used for experimental medical procedures."

"These egregious abuses echo, the shameful legacy of reproductive coercion and forced sterilization of Black, Brown and Indigenous people, as well as those with disabilities, in our country," DeGette and Lee continued in their statement.