A Dark Legacy — Women’s Bodies As a Battlefield

ICE Detention Centers: How Today’s Horrors Shine A Light On The Past

Did you hear it last Monday (Sept. 14th 2020)?

The sound of mothers in ICE facilities wailing because their dreams of having another child have been taken from them?

The sound of women who have not yet had a child shouting in anger because they no longer have a uterus?

Other women, not interested in motherhood, crying in anguish as they struggle with the reality of menopause being thrust upon their young bodies, against their wishes, without their consent? I heard them.

In fact, if it’s really quiet, I can still hear these women, their collective “endless silent scream rising to a sky.” I also hear them whispering their gratitude to Dawn Wooten, the ICE detention center nurse who blew the whistle and told the world what was happening out of the public eye, what was happening to those we forgot about amidst our pandemic panic.

She bravely told us of the hysterectomies being performed at ICE detention facilities, largely on Spanish speaking women, many of whom are asylum seekers. (News coverage has been extensive. Here’s a few links: BBC, USA Today, NPR, Fox News. Your preferred news outlet probably covered it.)