Condemning Unwanted, Unnecessary Medical Procedures on Individuals Without Their Full, Informed Consent

Floor Speech

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1164, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 1153) condemning unwanted, unnecessary medical procedures on individuals without their full, informed consent, and ask for its immediate consideration.

The Clerk read the title of the resolution.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Res. 1154.

Mr. Speaker, imagine this: You are an immigrant woman detained in a detention center. Perhaps you have been asking for help for months about a painful medical condition or perhaps you have had no medical complaints at all.

You are suddenly woken up early in the morning. You are put in shackles and taken not to a general practitioner, but to a gynecologist.

That gynecologist performs ultrasounds, inserts tools, even his own hands into your body without any consent or any lubrication. You are in pain. You do not know what is being done to you. You feel violently sexually assaulted.

The doctor tells you that you have a major problem, cysts that must be operated on, from that simple examination he did. You don't want surgery and you even say so. He says: Okay, I will give you a shot instead.

And because you are scared, you take the shot, but you don't know what it is. You haven't been told what it is. You certainly have no idea that, in fact, this is a shot that is an injectable contraceptive that temporarily prevents you from having children and can have other serious side effects, including bleeding.

Now you are bleeding. You are scared, and you don't know what is happening. You go back to see the gynecologist, and he tells you this is why he said you must have surgery.

You have doubts. You want a second opinion. But you are told you cannot have a second opinion, and it is either this or you will never get any care again--after all, you are in detention.

You finally, perhaps in some cases, agree to the surgery thinking that you are just having cysts removed, but you wake up and you find out that you have had a full or partial hysterectomy, one of your fallopian tubes has been removed or perhaps some other surgery that you weren't expecting.

Imagine that someone has just taken away or severely compromised your ability to have children without ever telling you or asking your consent for what they are doing.

Mr. Speaker, that is why we are here today, to vote on House Resolution 1153, to condemn unwanted, unnecessary medical procedures conducted on women without their full, informed consent, to ensure the safety, health, and presence of the women at the Irwin County Detention Center, and to mandate full compliance of ICE with the requirements of the ongoing investigation.

The story I just described is just one of the many stories we have now heard from women who are either currently or were formerly detained at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia.

Please understand that 90 percent of the people detained at this facility are completely unrepresented by any attorney. Moreover, like all detention facilities, Irwin has been plagued with COVID. People detained here report not receiving adequate PPE, and there have been multiple cases of COVID.

Since this horrific story emerged through a whistleblower report 2 weeks ago, a few attorneys who are representing some of the women have brought forward more stories.

Independent gynecologists have reviewed the available medical records.

The New York Times launched an independent investigation, asking independent gynecologists to review the records of seven women who were able to obtain their medical files. What they found is deeply disturbing.

The doctors noted that the gynecologist ``seemed to consistently recommended surgical intervention, even when it did not seem medically necessary at the time and nonsurgical treatment options were available.''

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a September 29 New York Times article, titled: ``Immigrants Say They Were Pressured Into Unneeded Surgeries.'' [From the New York Times, Sept. 29, 2020]

Immigrants Say They Were Pressured Into Unneeded Surgeries Immigrants detained at an ICE-contracted center in Georgia said they had invasive gynecology procedures that they later learned might have been unnecessary

(By Caitlin Dickerson, Seth Freed Wessler and Miriam Jordan)

Wendy Dowe was startled awake early one morning in January 2019, when guards called her out of her cellblock in the Irwin County immigration detention center in rural Georgia, where she had been held for four months. She would be having surgery that day, they said.

Still groggy, the 48-year-old immigrant from Jamaica, who had been living without legal status in the United States for two decades before she was picked up by immigration authorities, felt a swell of dread come over her. An outside gynecologist who saw patients in immigration custody told her that the menstrual cramping she had was caused by large cysts and masses that needed to be removed, but she was skeptical. The doctor insisted, she said, and as a detainee--brought to the hospital in handcuffs and shackles--she felt pressured to consent.

It was only after she was deported to Jamaica and had her medical files reviewed by several other doctors that she knew she had been right to raise questions.

A radiologist's report, based on images of her internal organs from her time at Irwin, described her uterus as being a healthy size, not swollen with enlarged masses and cysts, as the doctor had written in his notes. The cysts she had were small, and the kind that occur naturally and do not usually require surgical intervention.

``I didn't have to do any of it,'' Ms. Dowe said.

The Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga., drew national attention this month after a nurse, Dawn Wooten, filed a whistle-blower complaint claiming that detainees had told her they had had their uteruses removed without their full understanding or consent.

Since then, both ICE and the hospital in Irwin County have released data that show that two full hysterectomies have been performed on women detained at Irwin in the past three years. But firsthand accounts are now emerging from detainees, including Ms. Dowe, who underwent other invasive gynecological procedures that they did not fully understand and, in some cases, may not have been medically necessary.

At least one lawyer brought the complaints about gynecological care to the attention of the center's top officials in 2018, according to emails obtained by The New York Times, but the outside referrals continued.

The Times interviewed 16 women who were concerned about the gynecological care they received while at the center, and conducted a detailed review of the medical files of seven women who were able to obtain their records. All 16 were treated by Dr. Mahendra Amin, who practices gynecology in the nearby town of Douglas and has been described by ICE officials as the detention center's ``primary gynecologist.''

The cases were reviewed by five gynecologists--four of them board-certified and all with medical school affiliations--who found that Dr. Amin consistently overstated the size or risks associated with cysts or masses attached to his patients' reproductive organs. Small or benign cysts do not typically call for surgical intervention, where large or otherwise troubling ones sometimes do, the experts said.

The doctors stressed that in some cases the medical files might not have been complete and that additional information could potentially shift their analyses. But they noted that Dr. Amin seemed to consistently recommend surgical intervention, even when it did not seem medically necessary at the time and nonsurgical treatment options were available.

In almost every woman's chart, Dr. Amin listed symptoms such as heavy bleeding with clots and chronic pelvic pain, which could justify surgery. But some of the women said they never experienced or reported those symptoms to him.

Both the reviewing doctors and all of the women interviewed by The Times raised concerns about whether Dr. Amin had adequately explained the procedures he performed or provided his patients with less invasive alternatives. Spanish- speaking women said a nurse who spoke Spanish was only sporadically present during their exams.

The diagnoses and procedures are ``poorly supported'' and ``not well documented,'' said Dr. Sara Imershein, a clinical professor at George Washington University and the Washington, DC, chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Even if the patients had reported the symptoms recorded by Dr. Amin, ``there would have been many avenues to pursue before rushing to surgery,'' she said. ``Advil for one.''

``He is overly aggressive in his treatment and does not explore appropriate medical management before turning to procedures or surgical intervention,'' said Dr. Deborah Ottenheimer, a forensic evaluator and instructor at the Weill Cornell Medical School Human Rights Clinic.

But the doctors who reviewed the cases noted that aggressive overtreatment is all too common among doctors-- especially with patients who do not have the resources to seek a second opinion.

Dr. Ada Rivera, medical director of the ICE Health Service Corps, said in a statement that the whistle-blower's allegations ``raise some very serious concerns that deserve to be investigated quickly and thoroughly.'' She added, ``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.''

Dr. Amin's lawyer, Scott Grubman, said in a statement that the physician ``strongly disputes any allegations that he treated any patient with anything other than the utmost care and respect.''

``Dr. Amin also strongly disputes that any patient was treated without full informed consent,'' the statement continued. Mr. Grubman said that patient privacy laws prevented him from discussing any specific patient's treatment, but in each case it ``was medically necessary, performed within the standard of care, and done only after obtaining full informed consent.''

The statement added that Dr. Amin always uses an interpreter when treating patients who do not speak English and ``always attempts to treat his patients with more conservative treatment, including medicine and less invasive procedures, before even recommending surgery,'' which he views as a last resort.

Independent doctors that provide treatment for ICE detainees are paid for the procedures they perform with Department of Homeland Security funds. Procedures like the ones that Dr. Amin performed are normally billed at thousands of dollars each.

Dr. Amin's billings had previously come to the attention of federal authorities. In 2013, the Justice Department named him in a civil case alleging that he and several other doctors had overbilled Medicare and Medicaid by, among other things, performing unnecessary procedures on terminal patients and leaving the emergency room staffed by nurses while billing for diagnoses and treatments as if they had been performed by doctors. The case was settled for $520,000 with no admission of fault on the part of the defendants. `I could not ask any questions'

In many cases, Dr. Amin's patients said they were confused about why they ended up being sent to his office in the first place--some after raising medical issues that had nothing to do with gynecology.

Yuridia, a 36-year-old immigrant from Mexico, sought out a nurse at the center soon after she arrived because she was having pain in her rib after a fight with her abusive ex- partner just before she was picked up by ICE. She asked to be identified by her first name because she feared for her safety.

She was sent for a medical exam at Dr. Amin's office, where she said he began to prepare an ultrasound machine. ``I was assuming they were going to check my rib,'' she said. ``The next thing I know, he's doing a vaginal exam.''

Dr. Amin recorded in his notes that Yuridia had cysts in her ovaries and scheduled a surgery to remove them. He also wrote that she had complained of heavy menstruation and pelvic pain. She said that she never experienced or reported those conditions and that she had not asked to see a gynecologist.

Weeks later, she underwent surgery. Pathology reports show that she did not have dangerous cysts, but small ones of the kind that occur naturally in most women and do not call for surgical intervention.

Yuridia said she had expected only a minor procedure that would be performed vaginally, but she was surprised when she woke up to find three incisions on her abdomen and a piece of skin missing from her genital area.

``I woke up and I was alone, and I was in pain and everyone spoke English so I could not ask any questions,'' Yuridia said. Three days later, still sore and recovering, she was deported.

Yuridia's case bears striking similarities to others that the panel of doctors reviewed. Many of them led to two surgical procedures performed simultaneously: ``dilation and curettage,'' often referred to as a ``D & C,'' which involves inserting tools into a woman's vagina and scraping tissue from the uterus, and laparoscopy, in which three incisions are made to insert a camera into the abdominal cavity to examine or perform procedures on the reproductive organs.

The cases suggest a pattern of ``excessively aggressive surgical intervention without adequate trial of medical remedies,'' Dr. Ottenheimer said. A report reveals longstanding complaints

It was the Irwin County center's handling of the coronavirus pandemic that inspired Ms. Wooten, the nurse whose whistle-blower complaint was first reported by The Intercept, to come forward about another issue that troubled her: Dr. Amin's surgeries. She said in an interview that she had for years noticed that an inordinate number of women were being referred to Dr. Amin. She said she would hear reports that they had undergone surgeries but that they had no idea why the surgeries were performed.

``After they get up from general anesthesia,'' Ms. Wooten said, the women would ask, ``Why'd I have this surgery?''

``And I don't have an answer for why,'' she said. ``I am just as shocked as they are. Nobody explained it to them.''

Data from ICE inspection reports show that the center, which is operated by a private prison company, Lasalle Corrections, refers more than 1,000 detainees a year for outside medical care, far more than most other immigration detention centers of the same size. It is not clear how many of these referrals are for gynecological care. Lasalle Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.

Concerns from women detained at Irwin emerged long before Ms. Wooten came forward.

Ms. Dowe, after being told by Dr. Amin that she had a mass the size of a ``cantaloupe'' on her uterus, had reached out in early 2019 to Donald Anthonyson, an immigrant advocate she had met through a fellow detainee. She was asking for help, Mr. Anthonyson said.

``She expressed real concerns about going to that doctor,'' he said. ``She was concerned about what was happening to her and what she was hearing from other women.''

Unlike some of the women who had no gynecological complaints, Ms. Dowe was experiencing intense menstrual cramping, which the doctors who reviewed her case said could sometimes justify the procedure she underwent--but only if the patient understands the options and elects to move forward. Even then, the doctors raised questions about several seemingly healthy and naturally occurring cysts that Dr. Amin might have removed unnecessarily while he was operating on her.

After the procedure, Dr. Amin wrote in his notes that Ms. Dowe requested a second surgery--a full abdominal hysterectomy and removal of her ovaries.

But Ms. Dowe insists she never made any such request. A note in her medical records from the detention center appears to corroborate her denial. ``Detainee is requesting a second opinion to have a hysterectomy,'' it reads, ``OB/GYN scheduled hysterectomy and patient refused.''

Complaints about Dr. Amin had also been raised with senior officials long before Ms. Dowe's case.

In November 2018, a woman named Nancy Gonzalez Hidalgo was left shaken after several visits with the physician, during which she said he performed rough vaginal ultrasounds and ignored her when she cried out in pain. Ms. Gonzalez Hidalgo's lawyers sent an email to the warden of the center, David Paulk.

In the email, Erin Argueta, a lawyer at the Southern Poverty Law Center, explained that Ms. Gonzalez Hidalgo's health was worsening because of complications she was experiencing from an earlier miscarriage.

``Nancy hesitated to seek medical attention because her last experience with Dr. Amin was so painful and traumatic that she did not want to be sent back to him,'' Ms. Argueta wrote.

She referred in her email to several previous verbal complaints about Dr. Amin that lawyers had taken to the center's inmates services director, Marteka George. ``Ms. George stated that this was not the first time someone complained about Dr. Amin, and she said that she would look into whether Nancy could see a different provider,'' the lawyer wrote.

The warden responded twice, stating on Nov. 30 that Ms. Gonzalez Hidalgo had been scheduled for an appointment with an outside provider ``that is unassociated with Dr. Amin.'' The other doctor, Warden Paulk said, was ``reportedly well thought of by his patients.''

Warden Paulk did not respond to requests for comment.

Other women who questioned Dr. Amin's care in the past said they had also faced challenges when they tried to seek answers.

On the morning of Aug. 14, Mileidy Cardentey Fernandez said, there was no interpreter present at the Irwin County Hospital when she was presented with consent forms in English to sign for a procedure she was undergoing that day.

She asked the technician, ``Spanish, please? Little English.'' The woman urged her to sign the forms--and so she did.

Afterward, she said, she filled out a form on numerous occasions at the detention center requesting her medical records but got no response.

``I wanted to know everything they had done,'' she said. ``I made requests for the biopsy, analyses, and they don't want to give them to me. They said they don't have the results. How can they not have the results?''

When she was released from detention on Sept. 21, she called her daughter in Virginia and then headed straight to Dr. Amin's clinic with her lawyer to demand her records, which she received.

Some women said they had managed to avoid surgeries by Dr. Amin but not without facing resistance.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, this is about full or partial sterilization and a total lack of consent from the patient. And let's be very clear: Even if a procedure or test is medically necessary, a doctor must have informed consent from their patient. This is the most basic tenet of medical ethics.

Last weekend, 10 Members of Congress visited the detention center and we spoke directly to the women. We saw their pain and shock and horror about the irreparable damage that has been done to them and their futures.

I have here letters from dozens of women at the center detailing some of these things that they have seen and experienced, including these unnecessary medical procedures. To bring their voices directly into this Chamber, let me read from one of them.

A woman married to a U.S. citizen and with children of her own:

My experience here has been full of fear and terror. It began when I asked for medication for my abdomen. My surprise when I was taken to the gynecologist, he didn't explain nothing and just told me to lay down and inserted something and said I had a cyst the size of a nail. I was injected and didn't say for what, and said the results would be here in 3 weeks; if not, I would come back. When everything that's been happening has come to light, I was never taken back thanks to God because, if not, I would have had surgery.

This resolution is simple. It mandates that a real investigation must happen. Even just this morning we had to once again ensure that a woman who had this surgery done to her was not once again arrested. We need to allow these women to heal as we get this investigation done in the speediest of manners.

Passing this resolution also sends a clear message to doctors contracted by the private for-profit incarceration facilities everywhere: We will not stand by and allow you to treat people this way. We will not stand by and allow history to repeat itself, a shameful history of medical abuse targeting Black people, indigenous people, people of color, immigrants, poor people, and people with disabilities for medical procedures without consent.

To the women at Irwin, those lucky enough to have been released and those who have already been deported: You are brave and resilient. You should know that the United States Congress, with the passage of this resolution, is saying to you: We see you; we hear you; and we will not stop fighting for you.

I thank my colleagues and coleads of this resolution, Representatives Annie Kuster, Sheila Jackson Lee, Sylvia Garcia, and Lois Frankel, for introducing this resolution with me that now has the support of 225 Members of Congress and, also, the Women's Caucus for their tremendous attention to this resolution, as well as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that helped lead the codel with the Judiciary Committee.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Garcia), my distinguished co-lead on this resolution, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Jackson Lee), my distinguished and wonderful colleague who has been on the front lines of this issue since it started and has already provided so much to the women who have been detained at Irwin.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, we awoke this morning to daunting news in this Nation, and I know that the Nation prays.

I want to thank the gentlewoman from Washington for her distinguished service, and our fellow coleaders and cosponsors, Congresswomen Kuster, Garcia, and Frankel, and, really, all of those who rose in the immediacy of our visit to be able to sign on to H. Res. 1153.

In the spirit of our late friend and colleague, America is better than this. America is better than this.

First, to my Republican friends, I hope that they will rise today and vote for this legislation. If they read it, they will understand there is no condemnation of ICE. There is accountability that each and every one of us who serves the people of the United States is obligated to do. We are obligated to be accountable. We are obligated to treat every human being with decency.

Though this is a circumstance that pained my heart, am I reminded of the man that killed nine at Mother Emanuel Church and was taken to get a burger before he was taken to jail because he said he was hungry.

No one seems to condemn that. It certainly hurt my heart. Nine people of faith praying were killed, murdered in their church, and left lying in blood. But he was taken to get a burger.

Why should these women be treated any less?

This resolution, why is it so intimidating? All we say is, condemning the performance of ``unwanted, unnecessary medical procedures on individuals without their full, informed consent,'' recognizing that ``everyone deserves to control their own reproductive choices and make informed choices about their bodies.'' We have been saying that all along.

My friends on the other side of the aisle, I hope they join in that. They want a singular path. We say people with their God, women with their God, their family, and their medical professional.

Acknowledges that ``further accountability, oversight, and transparency is necessary to protect people in the custody'' of DHS and ICE, to make sure these women are not deported as we are in the midst of an inspector general's report.

Thankful to the Judiciary Committee, the chairman, and the colleagues who led this letter of over 180-plus Members. That IG's investigation is proceeding, but they need to have those witnesses, and this resolution is crucial because it lays out intimate facts that we heard personally from women.

I don't know whenever--I know that I was here for debates on partial- birth abortion. That is obviously not what it was. It was a medical procedure to save the mother's life. But when have we ever discussed the private examinations of women, how private we are in order to get America to understand how this was?

Women should rise up, not respecting their party. They should rise up when they know that procedures were done without consent--physically touched, could not speak English. All women seemed to get the same diagnosis: remove the Fallopian tube.

Pauline--I will not call her last name--I sat with her for an hour and a half, and she described what happened: sedated, did not know, told after she came out of the sedation, broke down in tears. I pay tribute to her. And almost about to be on the verge of deportation, a witness.

The whistleblower, a mother of five children, single mother of five children, she needed her job. Demoted because she had the courage to talk about examinations, surgeries.

Only women would understand examinations without lubricant, young women in the prime of fertility, crying.

Beds--this is a private center contracted by the government. Beds that looked like they had been there since the 1800s. These were metal beds. I have never seen a bunk bed this thin. This is a place waiting for COVID-19 because they are so close. The beds themselves are 2 feet to 4 feet away.

You know what their COVID-19 practice is for protection? It is to have one head this way and one head that way.

There are no masks. The air is going.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. You have no way to protect these women in this crowded scenario.

There is a men's site. By the way, this is a for-profit center, so they take U.S. Marshals individuals. They take county individuals. It is just a potpourri of persons.

They have women who have been there for 3-plus years.

I don't blame the workers or even the agencies, the subagency. It is the policies of this administration dealing with immigrants who are human beings and have due process rights accordingly, as being in the United States.

I leave you with this: Please pass H. Res. 1153 because this is drawn by this woman who says liberty because we are daughters, we are mothers, we are human beings. The Nation is better than this.

Vote for H. Res. 1153 to stop these procedures and stop these prisons from taking advantage of us.

Mr. Speaker, as a leader of this resolution and a senior member of the House Judiciary and Homeland Committees, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 1153, ``Condemning Unwanted, Unnecessary Medical Procedures on Individuals Without Their Full, Informed Consent''.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my fellow co-leads of this resolution, Representatives Jayapal, Kuster, Garcia, and Frankel as well as all 224 members who have supported this resolution.

H. Res. 1153 addresses the recent allegations of improper medical care of detained women in the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia by: condemning the performance of unwanted, unnecessary medical procedures on individuals without their full, informed consent; recognizing that everyone deserves to control their own reproductive choices and make informed choices about their bodies; and acknowledges that further accountability, oversight, and transparency is necessary to protect people in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs.

The resolution also calls on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to pause the removal of any individual who has received any medical procedure at the Irwin County Detention Center as well as allow individuals who may have experienced an unnecessary or nonconsensual procedure to have immediate access to adequate, safe, and consensual medical treatment.

By passing this resolution today, DHS must also comply with all investigations and records request related to investigations about the Irwin County Detention Center, ensure affected individuals are able to freely participate in any investigations, and hold all individuals involved in perpetrating these instances of medical impropriety accountable.

On September 14, 2020, Project South filed an explosive complaint to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.

The complaint alleged unsafe, unsanitary conditions, as well as cited significant numbers of full and partial hysterectomies performed on detainees at the Irwin County Detention Center without the full and informed consent of the patients.

On September 16, 2020, I was alerted to the DHS' decision to fast- track the deportation of a young woman, Pauline Binam, who was a victim of improper medical care at the Irwin County Detention Center.

Pauline is a strong, kind, and lovely young woman who has lived in the United States since she was two years old.

Since 2017, Pauline had been held in DHS custody and was scheduled to be deported to Cameroon.

That is three years of not being able to hold her child, embrace her family, or celebrate milestones and holidays with loved ones.

In August 2019, while being detained at the Irwin County Detention Center, Pauline underwent a procedure commonly known as a D&C, which she had been told that it was for the purpose of getting rid of the cysts on her ovaries.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a D&C procedure is used for the following medical reasons: Clearing out tissues that remain in the uterus after a miscarriage or abortion to prevent infection or heavy bleeding; Removing a tumor that forms instead of a normal pregnancy; Treating excessive bleeding after delivery by clearing out any placenta that remains in the uterus; or Removing cervical or uterine polyps, which are usually benign.

However, when Pauline woke up from the anesthesia, she was informed that the doctor had removed her fallopian tube during the surgery.

This medical procedure, which substantially impacts Pauline's potential to have more children, was performed without her consent and has forever altered Pauline's life.

And Pauline is not the only victim.

Numerous allegations of medical abuse at the Irwin County Detention Center have come to light over the past few days and weeks.

These shocking claims of medical malpractice reflect widespread medical neglect in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention system.

It is imperative that we, as Members of Congress, fulfill our duty to the American people and get to the bottom of what happened to the women being held at the Irwin County Detention Center.

We cannot wait.

The women in this facility cannot wait.

We must seek out justice for these women immediately, and that starts by voting to pass this resolution.

Furthermore, Pauline and the other women who have shared their stories of these violating and nonconsensual medical procedures must have the ability to contribute to this investigation.

Had I not intervened and stopped Pauline's deportation when I did, we would have lost a key witness to the investigation; someone who is vital to shining a light on these cruel, and immoral medical procedures performed without full and informed consent.

We cannot be known as a country that violates our own laws.

Just because someone is an immigrant, is undocumented, or being detained for deportation, it does not mean that they can be denied their due process rights under the laws of this land and under the constitution of the United States of America.

Last weekend, I, along with several other Members of Congress, had the opportunity to visit the Irwin County Detention Center.

During that trip, I was able to speak with multiple detainees and hear about the living circumstances and quality of care surrounding their detention at the facility.

It is no secret that the United States has had a long history of women being denied reproductive rights and being violated medically, especially women of color.

When you perform procedures that disallow a woman from making her own choices or deny her from making a choice, you are violating her very humanity, and I will not stand idly by and allow it to continue.

As a woman and a mother, I am appalled and horrified by what has been happening to these women at the Irwin County Detention Center, and I believe that we owe it to them to investigate their claims fully.

I urge my colleagues to vote with their conscience and pass H. Res. 1153 today.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time remains.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, let me close by saying to my good colleague across the aisle that, when he says that first reports are always wrong, let me ask, is that like the first reports of family separation or kids in cages?

When my colleague says to let the investigation continue, that is exactly what this resolution does. It specifically defines the ability to keep these women who will be witnesses in this investigation in the United States. In fact, just last week we had to, once again, make sure that a woman was not deported who had her left fallopian tube removed, and it was confirmed by independent gynecologists.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I really believe that we crafted this resolution in a way that it could truly be a bipartisan resolution and that protects the ability for this investigation to continue with all the facts on the table, and we are grateful that there is an investigation going.

But in order to have a proper investigation, we need to have these witnesses here. We need to make sure that the women who have had these procedures are actually able to get care. And we need to make sure that this House says very clearly, in any situation, that these unnecessary, unwanted medical procedures, if true, done without consent and knowledge, are wrong.

That is all this resolution does.

Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues on the other side will vote ``yes'' with us on this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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