Black, Indigenous, women of color and immigrant women will not be controlled, harmed, silenced or erased!
Recent reports of forced hysterectomies on ICE detainees at the Irwin Detention Center, privately owned and operated by LaSalle Corrections, have sent shockwaves that have been felt so deeply in Georgia and beyond. As Reproductive Justice leaders and advocates committed to securing our human right to bodily autonomy, we are horrified and angry. This brazen attack on incarcerated Black and Brown bodies is part of a long history of policies and programs inflicting violence and harm on migrants and immigrants seeking refuge, safety and opportunity in this country. Forced hysterectomies and the calculated sterilization of those incarcerated by ICE are yet another attempt to control who has children and who can make decisions about their reproduction.
 
The United States has historically sent a clear message to us that Black & Brown bodies and lives do not matter.  Indigenous women have been raped, slaughtered, forced into reservations and sterilized. Black women have been stolen, chained, experimented on against their will with no anesthesia and sterilized. Latinas/Latinx folks from Puerto Rico to California have had their families torn apart by oppressive immigration laws, harmed by medical experiments, had their labor exploited and sterilized.  Women of Asian descent have had their labor trafficked, forced into concentration camps, criminalized through race and sex selection abortion bans and sterilized. And yet, in 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic that is killing people in our communities at alarming rates, we are still also dealing with systemic reproductive coercion and oppression intended to prevent us and our families from thriving.

We will not and cannot watch as a war is waged on our bodies and our communities. We will call out the hypocrisy of politicians in Georgia and across this nation who call themselves pro-life but refuse to advocate for the full life of the people they are supposed to serve.  No more tearing families apart whether it is at the border through mass incarceration or state sanctioned violence. No more cages. No more laws or programs that try to tell us when or how to have children or build our families.  No more talk of law and order and safety when the violence and trauma inflicted on us by this government is causing chaos and death. Immigrant Justice is Reproductive Justice. And we are coming together to say NO MORE to the systemic racism that is unleashing unwarranted havoc on our communities. NO MORE!  

We will rise up in our communities and leverage our power for change. Collectively, we are a powerful force. We ask that those who would consider themselves allies stand with us and follow our lead in a movement to end reproductive oppression.  Join us as we work to tear down every system that fuels weaponized white supremacy and xenophobia. Together, we must strive to build new systems and create a new vision created by and for our communities - a vision created by and led by Black, Indigenous and people of color and that does not silence or ignore our undocumented sisters.
 
We know and have always known what we need and are committed to defending our bodies, our families and our human rights.    
 
We invite you to sign your name to demonstrate that you will join us in not only speaking up and speaking out against this latest atrocity, but to also make a commitment to dismantle and rebuild every system that causes harm to our bodies, our families, and our communities.

***Spanish translation is forthcoming***
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