From The Nation:
Hillary Westfall never agreed to be sterilized. She arrived at California’s Valley State Prison for Women already diagnosed with endometriosis, a painful condition in which tissue similar to that which lines the uterus grows outside the uterus. In 2008, the prison’s sole gynecologist, James Heinrich, scheduled her for laparoscopic surgery at an outside hospital to have those tissues removed. Or that’s what she was told.
Instead, she told The Nation, Westfall woke up “cut from hip to hip.” Hospital staff told her that the excess tissue had been removed.
After returning to prison, Westfall began sweating profusely and continually. Without an undershirt, sweat would run down her back, leaving a wet line on her shirt. Her incision was regularly infected and she repeatedly had to see Heinrich for treatment.
Six years after the procedure, after being transferred to the Central California Women’s Facility, she asked about birth control to stop the constant sweating. The doctor told her that she had been given a hysterectomy because of a supposed history of cancer. (Later, another prison doctor reviewed her records and said there was no indication of a history of cancer.) Continu reading >>>
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