At least two Mexican women have undergone gynecological surgeries without their consent at a Georgia migration detention center in the United States, Mexico’s foreign ministry confirmed on Saturday.
According to the ministry, the authorities of the Mexican consulate in Atlanta identified the cases of these two women thanks to the investigations carried out after the revelation, in September, of these operations of forced sterilization in September by the NGO Project South.
The case of one of the identified Mexicans reveals “a surgical intervention” – but not a hysterectomy, underlines the ministry – without her consent and without postoperative care.
“Faced with the seriousness of the reported facts, the Consulate General sought the opinion of a specialist who, after an exhaustive examination, reported irregularities or anomalies in the medical process”, indicates the ministry report.
The consulate, continues the ministry, is also studying the case of another woman, already repatriated to Mexico, who “would have been subjected to a gynecological surgery without her full consent, without having received in Spanish an explanation of her medical diagnosis nor on the nature of the medical operations which were to follow ”.
The Mexican government announced at the end of September that it had opened an investigation into the cases of six Mexican women who had allegedly undergone forced sterilizations at a migration detention center in Irwin County, Georgia.
According to the NGO Project South, based in Atlanta, Georgia, at least 17 women were sterilized – in some cases by total hysterectomy – without their consent or without obtaining the necessary information.
These accusations, which are based in particular on the testimony of a nurse who worked in the Irwin detention center, prompted the request for the opening of a federal investigation at the initiative of the elected Democrat at the House of Representatives Pramila Jayapal.