Immigrant Women Detained By ICE Said A Gynecologist Performed Procedures Without Their Consent

Amanda thought she was going to the doctor for a simple procedure to drain an ovarian cyst, but when she arrived at Irwin County Hospital from ICE’s Irwin County Detention Center in July 2019, a nurse told her she would be having surgery.

Amanda, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym because she has an open immigration case and fears retaliation, said she was filled with terror at the thought of being put under anesthesia. She was also confused; surgery was not at all what her gynecologist had told her to expect.

"He said draining a cyst is minor," Amanda told BuzzFeed News. "I asked him if I would need any downtime, and he told me, 'No, I'm just draining the cyst' and that it wasn't a big procedure."

Her gynecologist was Mahendra Amin, the doctor at the center of accusations of carrying out gynecological procedures on women in immigration detention without their consent. Amin, who until recently had been treating immigrant women detained at Irwin County Detention Center, has denied the allegations through his attorney and did not...