Reproductive Rights are Human Rights
In light of the recent news regarding the Dawn Wootens allegations against the Irwin Detention Center in Georgia for performing unnecessary mass hysterectomies on vulnerable immigrant women, I will be reflecting on the racist and abusive history of forced sterilization against BIPOC. Along with these allegations that violate standard human rights, Wooten has spoken on behalf of the negligence that has occurred regarding the COVID-19 protocols that the Irwin detention center has failed to maintain in order to keep the detainees and staff safe.
Forced sterilization has historically been used as a weapon that abuses marginalized women and steals their autonomy over their bodies. This news is especially disturbing because this is not the first time that this abuse of power has been inflicted on women’s bodies. In the 1950s there occurred the first large scale human trial for birth control in Puerto Rico, the 1,500 participants were not informed of possible side effects or risks, many suffered from blood clots and 6 women died. There was no justice or investigation for their deaths, and there were no reparations to the women that suffered. It is no coincidence that this was performed in an underprivileged and underresourced country, it was intentional to exploit poor and uneducated Latina women.
“No Mas Bebes”, is a documentary about low-income Mexican and Mexican-American women that had been sterilized against their will after childbirth by Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. This happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was known as the Madrigal V. Quilligan case of 1978 and ruled in favor of the doctor. In the same decade, between 25 and 50 percent of Native American women were sterilized. Most coerced and forced sterilization against women has been racially charged and paints the racist history and values that are held within this country. Minorities are often deemed “less intelligent” or “unfit”, but the intent behind unwanted sterilization on women of color is evident. This is a system for mass elimination and is contributing to the consistent attempts of erasure that are committed against BIPOC.
The Irwin Detention Center is participating in this violent and exploitative act against immigrant women. These Women are granted no rights and hardly any advocation, they are uneducated, captive, and vulnerable. They need help, they need to be heard and protected. Since when did being undocumented in the US mean that you cannot choose your reproductive future and health? That you cannot make choices on behalf of your own uterus? Women and people with a uterus need the basic human right to choose what happens to them. We are not objects or experiments or “unfit” and “less intelligent”, we are human beings and we make our own reproductive choices.