Forced Sterilizations are Horrific + Must be Investigated and Halted

I’m sure you shared our outrage and shock after learning about a complaint filed this week reporting widespread and alarming incidents of forced sterilizations on Latinas being detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Georgia.

These horrific charges remind us of our country’s dark and shameful history of stripping away the bodily autonomy of women - particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color – including the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and the over 20,000 people sterilized under California’s Eugenics law between 1909 and 1979.

These reprehensible and institutional practices of abuse must not repeated, not under our watch.

Contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to conduct an immediate investigation into the alleged human rights violations. The Department of Homeland Security and any ICE staff involved in forced sterilizations must be held accountable to the full extent of the law.

As our partners at California Latinas for Reproductive Justice have strongly stated, “The right to decide when, if, and how to parent is fundamental to our humanity and we must uphold and defend all of our rights to control our own reproductive capacity, without state or other interference”.

Together we can and must defend and demand reproductive health, freedom and justice for ALL.