A Georgia doctor is set to go to trial against NBCUniversal Media over its reporting of allegations that he performed unnecessary “mass hysterectomies” on immigrant women at a South Georgia detention center without their consent.
Dr. Mahendra Amin claims he was defamed during MSNBC broadcasts in September 2020 that reported a whistleblower complaint alleging deplorable conditions and medical malpractice at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla. At the time and until October 2021, the center was used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The women were in ICE custody.
A Georgia federal judge determined in late June that some of the NBCUniversal Media statements about Amin are “verifiably false” and that a jury should decide whether it made those statements with malice and a “high degree of awareness that the statements were false.” The evidence shows that Amin performed two hysterectomies on detainees of the Irwin County facility between 2017 and 2019, both of which were deemed medically necessary by ICE. Those women’s ages were not publicly reported.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood set the case for trial starting April 22, 2025 in the federal courthouse in Waycross. She said NBCUniversal Media found no evidence of more than the two hysterectomies, but published statements that Amin performed “mass hysterectomies” and had a reputation among detainees as “the uterus collector.”
“A jury could conclude that (Amin) performed unnecessary and unauthorized gynecological procedures, including the two hysterectomies,” Wood said in an 83-page order. “A jury could also conclude that these accusations were materially false.”
NBCUniversal Media declined to comment on the case, in which Amin seeks at least $30 million in damages. In court filings, the company stood by its reporting of allegations against Amin, which were spearheaded by a Tifton resident who worked as a nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center. Tifton is in Tift County, which abuts Irwin County to the southwest.
“MSNBC did not just re-state the allegations of the whistleblower complaint, as many news organizations did,” the company said in a December 2023 filing. “Instead, it conducted and relied on additional reporting – interviewing the whistleblower, speaking with detainees’ lawyers who expressed serious concerns with Dr. Amin’s medical care, consulting a medical expert, and reviewing court records with similar allegations against Dr. Amin. At every turn, the whistleblower complaint’s allegations were corroborated.”
The allegations about Amin sparked multiple investigations by government agencies including ICE, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Georgia Composite Medical Board, and the U.S. Department of Justice. The state board found the allegations were unsubstantiated, Amin said in court filings. Homeland Security issued recommendations to ICE concerning the Irwin County Detention Center.
As part of a DOJ probe, Amin and others settled civil claims. A U.S. Senate committee concluded in November 2022 that female detainees at the Ocilla facility were subjected to excessive, invasive and often unnecessary gynecological procedures, for which there were repeated failures to secure informed consent. The committee, which interviewed 70 witnesses and reviewed over 541,000 pages of records, found that Amin was a “clear outlier” in both the number and types of procedures he performed compared to other obstetrician-gynecologists who treated ICE detainees.
In her June 26 order, Wood noted that Amin declined to testify before the Senate committee, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The Irwin County Detention Center housed about 4% of female ICE detainees nationwide from 2017 to 2020, when Amin accounted for about 6.5% of all OB-GYN visits among all ICE detainees, court records show. He performed nearly a third of certain OB-GYN procedures on ICE detainees across the country between 2017 and 2020 and more than 90% of some key procedures.
Stacey Evans, an attorney for Amin, said he is a committed physician who looks forward to setting the record straight at trial. She said the statements by NBCUniversal Media “struck at the core of who Dr. Amin is” and were devastating to him personally and professionally.
“It is a shame how the quest for quick news leaves real people damaged in the wake,” Evans told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The lies that have been spread about him and continue to be spread are horrific. He has dedicated his entire adult life to treating patients.”
Amin’s complaint against NBCUniversal Media states that he was the sole OB-GYN in Irwin County until 2020, when he ceased treating patients at the Irwin County Detention Center. Amin, who has been licensed to practice medicine in Georgia for over 35 years, lives in Douglas, about 30 miles from Ocilla. He continues to see patients daily, Evans said.
In a separate case pending before Wood, Amin claims he was defamed in a 2023 true crime podcast that also stemmed from the whistleblower allegations against him. He seeks at least $15 million in that case, filed in March.
A different federal judge in Georgia recently dismissed civil medical malpractice claims against Amin and others tied to the Irwin County Detention Center. In two similar cases, 17 women alleged that they were subjected to abuse, including unnecessary gynecological procedures performed without their consent by or at the direction of Amin while they were detained at the center. In those cases, only claims against the federal government remain. The public records in the cases don’t show an alleged motive for Amin’s treatment of the women.
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