Past hoax · Filed Oct 16, 2026
Mass Hysterectomies Performed on Immigrants Hoax
A doctor was performing mass hysterectomies on women in immigration detention.
The claim
A doctor was performing mass hysterectomies on women in immigration detention.
What it was
The charge was a uterus collector. The record was two hysterectomies, not a program. NBC settled the doctor’s suit.
Timeline
Sep 14, 2020
A whistleblower complaint says women at the Irwin County detention center in Georgia are being given mass hysterectomies.
Sep 15, 2020
MSNBC’s biggest shows air it. The doctor, Mahendra Amin, is called a uterus collector. The election is weeks away.
2024
A federal judge writes that there were no mass hysterectomies, that Amin performed two on detainees from that facility, and that NBC’s statements were false.
Feb 2025
NBC settles Amin’s defamation suit.
What aired
In September 2020, a whistleblower complaint said women at the Irwin County detention center in Georgia were being sent out for hysterectomies in alarming numbers. The doctor, Mahendra Amin, was called a uterus collector. MSNBC ran the charge on its biggest shows, weeks before the election. The implication was a sterilization program inside immigration detention.
The record
There was no such program. Amin had performed two hysterectomies on detainees from that facility, not a campaign of them. A federal judge later wrote that multiple statements NBC aired were verifiably false: no mass hysterectomies, no high numbers, and he was not a uterus collector. NBC settled the doctor’s defamation suit.
Left out
Left out, while the phrase was still new, was the actual count. Two procedures are a medical dispute. “Mass” is a crime against a population. Also left out was that repeating a whistleblower’s allegation, with the visuals of a camp, is not the same as checking the surgeries. The letter was the evidence. The letter was not the chart.
Why it stuck
It stuck because the phrase is unforgettable and the timing was an election. A correction in a courtroom, years later, does not rewind a week of television. The settlement was quiet compared with the accusation. The accusation is the thing people still half-remember.