"This is an extraordinarily disturbing finding" that "represents a catastrophic failure by the Federal government to respect basic human rights," committee chair Jon Ossoff (D-Ga) said in his opening
statement.
"Among the serious abuses this Subcommittee has investigated during the last two years, subjecting female detainees to nonconsensual and unnecessary gynecological surgeries is one of the most nightmarish and disgraceful."
On Tuesday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
released the findings of an 18-month investigation into the actions of one Department of Homeland Security-contracted doctor, Mahendra Amin.
While the investigation did not find evidence of "mass, unauthorized hysterectomies," which was the original allegation, they did find evidence of a large number of "excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological surgeries and procedures, with repeated failures to obtain informed medical consent," according to Ossoffs' statement.
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"Many of the women who were treated by Dr. Amin while at ICDC do not know what happened to their bodies or why,"
wrote Dr. Margaret Muller, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Northwestern Fienberg School of Medicine, in a statement to the committee. "Many are not aware, for example, of what medications they were given or why, what surgical procedures were performed on them, or whether they are still able to have children."
The disturbing revelations of the investigation reveal a troubling tolerance for the neglect of women held in ICE detention.
According to Ossoff, Amin was able to perform medical procedures on large numbers of detained women, despite both not being board certified and having been previously sued by the Department of Justice and the State of Georgia for performing unnecessary procedures.
"I was only saved from the surgery because news about Dr. Amin's abuse came out," Cisneros
wrote to the committee. "Why was he allowed to harm me and so many other women?"