Republicans wanted fewer abortions and more births. They are getting the opposite | Judith Levine | The Guardian

The rate of voluntary sterilization among young women jumped abruptly after Dobbs, and there's no reason to believe it will drop off…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/17/republicans-abortions-dobbs-births 

 

Permanent contraception surged after Roe v Wade overturned, study finds

Young adults living in states likely to ban abortion obtained tubal sterilizations and vasectomies in months after ruling…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/06/permanent-contraception-abortion-roe-v-wade

 

Survivors of California’s forced sterilizations: ‘It’s like my life wasn’t worth anything’

…14-year-old Antonio Duran, who was sterilized in 1939, after being charged with burglary and painted as a criminal for entering a house and taking several items. The sterilization requests described him as "high tempered, unreliable, an habitual truant and a bully" and said his parents were "of low-grade Mexican mentality"...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/19/california-forced-sterilization-prison-survivors-reparations

ICE And The History Of Forced Sterilization In America (The 1A)

Last week, a nurse working at a detention center for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Georgia made some startling allegations about the treatment of the women detained there.

“I had several detained women on numerous occasions that would come to me and say, ‘Ms. Wooten, I had a hysterectomy. Why?’ I had no answer as to why they had those procedures, and one lady walked up to me here and she said, ‘What is he? Is he the uterus collector? Does he collect uteruses?’ And I asked her, what does she mean? And she says, ‘Everybody that I talk to has had a hysterectomy,'” said Dawn Wooten, in a whistleblower complaint filed against the agency last Monday.

The allegations weren’t only about medical abuse, but also how the facility failed to take the proper precautions against the spread of coronavirus among detainees.

ICE has announced it’s taking the whistleblower complaint seriously.

The agency said in a statement:

The recent allegations by the independent contracted employee raise some very serious concerns that deserve to be investigated quickly and thoroughly. ICE welcomes the efforts of both the Office of Inspector General as well as the Department of Homeland Security’s parallel review. As a former prosecutor, individuals found to have violated our policies and procedures should be held accountable. If there is any truth to these allegations, it is my commitment to make the corrections necessary to ensure we continue to prioritize the health, welfare and safety of ICE detainees.

There’s been a lot of focus on this specific complaint, but immigrant rights advocates say this just a small piece of a larger problem.

What’s going on at ICE? And how does this fit into the broader history of forced sterilization in America?
Interview:
https://the1a.org/segments/ice-and-the-history-of-forced-sterilization-in-america/

With allegations of hysterectomies at an ICE detention center, a return to the dark history of forced sterilizations in the U.S. - The Lily

A whistleblower complaint filed Monday has struck a nerve, nabbing headlines around the world, after a nurse alleged that immigrants in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center are being subjected to a high rate of hysterectomies, procedures that remove a woman’s uterus or womb and leave her unable to get pregnant.
https://www.thelily.com/a-whistleblower-alleges-mass-hysterectomies-at-an-ice-detention-center-the-us-has-a-brutal-history-of-forced-sterilizations/

The Vatican Says ‘Maybe’ to Hysterectomies

The Vatican has long viewed a hysterectomy as taboo because it causes permanent sterilization. Now they're softening their stance—but only in cases of life and death.....
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-vatican-says-maybe-to-hysterectomies

Catholic Rules Forced This Doctor to Watch Her Patient Sicken—Now, She’s Speaking Out - Rewire.News

“I teach all of my residents, I teach all of the medical students, this is not the standard of care."...
https://rewire.news/article/2017/09/07/catholic-rules-forced-doctor-watch-patient-sicken-now-shes-speaking/

As Catholic Hospitals Expand, So Do Limits on Some Procedures - The New York Times

After experiencing life-threatening pre-eclampsia during her first two pregnancies, Jennafer Norris decided she could not risk getting pregnant again. But several years later, suffering debilitating headaches and soaring blood pressure, she realized her I.U.D. had failed. She was pregnant, and the condition had returned.....
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/health/catholic-hospitals-procedures.html

How a Catholic Insurer Built a Birth Control Obstacle Course in New York

The New York state-based Fidelis refuses to cover a range of reproductive health services that conflict with directives from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, including abortion, sterilization, and most forms of birth control....
https://rewire.news/article/2017/01/26/catholic-insurer-built-birth-control-obstacle-course-new-york/