Dignity in Detention: Addressing Gynecological Healthcare Needs of People Detained by U.S. Immigration Authorities

People who require gynecological and obstetric care and who are detained by U.S. federal immigration authorities face unique challenges. This article examines how the current legal and administrative landscape fails to hold those responsible for providing healthcare accountable, effectively blocking access to gynecological care, and, assuming no immediate abolition of immigrant detention facilities, how international human law principles can and should guide a reimagining of the system. We also propose interim steps that U.S. authorities can take to protect access to basic and needed gynecological care for the people that they detain. Beginning with an overview of immigration detention as a civil detention practice, we delve into the international and national oversight bodies and mechanisms and how each was designed without any enforcement mechanisms. Highlighting the expansion of detention across the country, we underscore the critical need for comprehensive healthcare services within detention facilities, and how the current systems fail to meet those needs, highlighting privacy and confidentiality concerns, inadequate routine screenings, lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, and language barriers. Drawing on principles of dignity and dignity law, we argue for a reimagining of access to healthcare, both within and beyond immigration detention settings. Ultimately, in the absence of abolition of immigration detention facilities, our article calls for a comprehensive reevaluation of the legal and policy frameworks governing access to healthcare in immigration detention. By prioritizing dignity and human rights, we aim to chart a course toward a healthcare system that affords all individuals dignity under the law, including access to fundamental rights, such as medical care, regardless of their immigration or detention status.