Unwanted Hysterectomies & Medical Abuse?
How Can This Be?
(Image above: Dawn Wooten, left, a nurse at Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, listens to a speaker at a news conference in Atlanta on Sept. 15, 2020, protesting conditions at the immigration jail. Photo: Jeff Amy/AP)
No doubt like you, I have cringed at this news in the past week that has brought forward allegations from a staff nurse of multiple unwanted gynecological surgeries in Irwin Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia.
Like you, I don't want such allegations to be true. Like you, I pray for all lives to be protected--and for any surgeries so personal to never happen unless they are essential. Unless they are understood.
These are sensitive topics that make our souls ache. Yet as people of faith, we are called to "walk in the light" of truth and be guided by God's love as we seek healing.
To Learn More: As you also may be struggling to understand this issue, I want to share with you these words from a faith colleague within the Episcopal Church. She is a priest in Georgia, who ministers through visitation in the Irwin Detention Center. She has likewise heard of similar cases through the years.
To Join National Vigils: Also, if these testimonies--and your values and faith calling--lead you to want to respond, I want to invite you to join with faith partners and Families Belong Together in nationwide calls to hold vigils. You're invited to carry paper dolls or hearts, or stuffed animals, to raise your support for the women in Irwin, and for all women, children, and men--many who are seeking asylum protections--who are suffering terribly each day in detention.
Sign up here to hold a vigil. Here's information of how to form a vigil. Go here to locate an ICE facility near you. Our vigils will kick off a Week of Action beginning next Wednesday--so stay tuned for more info to come!
To Protect the Women from Retaliation: Join efforts to encourage that ICE: #DoNotDeportPauline #FreePauline and #FreeCameroonians in Detention. Pauline was two when she came to the US, now has her own young daughter, and is deeply involved in her Maryland Church--to which she prays to return. Born in the Cameroon, her fallopian tube was removed without consent while she was at Irwin. Follow the hashtags, and share the above image to support the ongoing campaign to halt those trying to deport her because of speaking out.
If you and your friends and faith community want to offer support for persons suffering in detention, join our growing Disciples network to free the families!
Contact me at: Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley-Rea, sstanley@dhm.disciples.org, 202-957-7826
May God continue to guide you--and us all--as we seek to respond to all God's children.
