Obstetric violence as immigration injustice: A view from the United States and Colombia.
Dev World Bioeth
; 23(2): 176-184, 2023 06.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36037097
ABSTRACT
In September 2020, Project South, along with numerous other organizations, released a report detailing abuses in a Georgia Detention Center - including forced hysterectomies. Whatever other factors are at play, one of them is an intrinsic connection between obstetric violence against pregnant migrants and immigration injustice. It is not incidental that these acts - in US detention centers, along the US-Mexico border, in Colombian hospitals and clinics - are being perpetrated on immigrant bodies. And it is not accidental or random which immigrant bodies are vulnerable to these violations. Understanding and confronting obstetric violence directed at pregnant migrants, though, requires reconceptualizing the nature of obstetric violence itself. In particular, we must recognize that obstetric violence against pregnant Latin American migrants in the United States and Colombia is a type of immigration injustice, a means to perpetrate immigration injustice, and a product of immigration injustice. As such, bioethicists need to collaborate with immigration scholars to resist it. After providing some background on the nature of obstetric violence and some ways it is perpetuated against pregnant migrants in the United States and Colombia, I will give a brief overview of how I conceptualize immigration justice. From there, I explain how this type of obstetric violence constitutes a type of immigration injustice, a means to perpetrate immigration injustice, and a product of immigration injustice. My hope is that this analysis motivates bioethicists throughout the Americas to engage with immigration scholars and activists to confront the issue more forcefully.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Transients and Migrants
/
Violence
/
Pregnant Women
/
Emigration and Immigration
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
/
America do sul
/
Colombia
/
Venezuela
Language:
En
Journal:
Dev World Bioeth
Journal subject:
ETICA
Year:
2023
Type:
Article