Plaintiff is Dr. Mahendra Amin, a gynecologist who performed medical services on some patients detained at an immigrant detention center.
asserted
who → perform → center
Plaintiff alleges that Defendant published a book containing false and defamatory statements about him and about his work as a doctor at the detention center….
asserted
Defendant → allege → center
Defendant argued its statements were a "fair report" of documents in a government proceeding, but the court declined to deny the case on these grounds:
asserted
court → argue → grounds
As Defendant's counsel conceded on the record at the April 28 Conference, the fair report privilege is contextual and depends on whether a reader would understand that a statement refers to the background or findings of a proceeding.
asserted
statement → concede → proceeding
Plaintiff complains of several paragraphs in the book, including the below:
asserted
Plaintiff → complain → below
On September 14, 2020, in a footnote to President Donald Trump's unconscionable treatment of migrants, a nurse named Dawn Wooten, who worked at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, filed a whistleblower complaint.
asserted
who → name → complaint
She said that Dr. Mahendra Amin—the center's leading doctor who was not even a gynecologist—allegedly told nearly every woman who went to see him that she had to have a hysterectomy.
uncertain
she → say → hysterectomy
Wooten referred to him as a "uterus collector."
asserted
Wooten → refer → collector
Defendant argues that the paragraph is covered by the fair report privilege because it either summarizes a whistle blower complaint, which precipitated a congressional investigation, or is corroborated by a congressional investigation.
asserted
which → argue → investigation
This argument ignores that the whistleblower complaint did not allege either that Plaintiff was "the center's leading doctor" or "was not even a gynecologist," which are among the statements that Plaintiff alleges were false or defamatory.
asserted
Plaintiff → ignore → statements
Indeed, the whistleblower complaint reported that the detention center "sen[t] many women to see a particular gynecologist outside the facility," seemingly a reference to Plaintiff.
asserted
center → report → Plaintiff
Therefore, the statements that Plaintiff was the center's leading doctor and not a gynecologist cannot be reasonably interpreted as mere reporting on the whistleblower complaint.
asserted
Plaintiff → interpret → complaint
Next, even assuming for purposes of argument that these statements were corroborated by the Senate investigation, there is no reference to that investigation in this paragraph.
asserted
statements → assume → paragraph
Accordingly, a reader would not understand these statements to be summarizing or reporting findings of a congressional investigation either.
asserted
statements → understand → investigation
Therefore, at the motion to dismiss stage, at least the statements that Plaintiff was the center's leading doctor and not a gynecologist are not covered by the fair report privilege, and the Court may not dismiss this lawsuit on fair report privilege grounds.
uncertain
Court → dismiss → grounds
{In context, these statements would be defamatory given the clear implication that Plaintiff was performing hysterectomies on detained, immigrant women without proper medical training, or that he used his position of authority to engage in unconscionable medical treatment for which he was not properly trained.}
Next, Plaintiff has adequately pleaded actual malice.
asserted
Plaintiff → give → malice
As Defendant's counsel stated on the record, actual malice is assessed at the time of publication.
asserted
malice → state → publication
The complaint alleges Defendant published a website retraction on January 15, 2025, clarifying that "[t]he statements about Dr. Amin were not accurate."
asserted
statements → allege → Amin
Nevertheless, the complaint alleges that, on January 28, 2025, almost two weeks later, Defendant published the book, "some versions of which included the defamatory statements."
asserted
versions → allege → statements
Accepting all allegations in the complaint as hue, the above sequence of events more than establishes actual malice at the pleading stage given Defendant published statements about Plaintiff two weeks after it publicly conceded the statements were inaccurate….
asserted
statements → accept → Plaintiff
Here's what I wrote about the case when it was filed in December:
asserted
it → write → December
[* * *]
Another Libel Suit by Doctor Who Had Been Accused of Performing Unnecessary Gynecological Procedures on Immigration Detainees
This one is over a book (Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope) by one of the winners of a Time Magazine 2025 Earth Award, "environmental justice" activist Catherine Coleman Flowers.
asserted
one → accuse → Award
For another recent suit over the same allegations in a different book, see Libel Lawsuit over Critical Race Theory Book That Accused Doctor of "Mass Hysterectomies".
asserted
That → see → Hysterectomies
For a decision in favor of Dr. Amin against NBCUniversal, see Judge Concludes NBC's Allegations of "Mass Hysterectomies" by Doctor at ICE Facility Were False, May Have Been Knowingly/Recklessly False.
uncertain
Allegations → see → Facility
From the Complaint in Amin v. Spiegel & Grau LLC (S.D.N.Y.), the passage from the essay in the book:
On September 14, 2020, in a footnote to President Donald Trump's unconscionable treatment of migrants, a nurse named Dawn Wooten, who worked at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, filed a whistleblower complaint.
asserted
who → name → complaint
She said that Dr. Mahendra Amin—the center's leading doctor who was not even a gynecologist—allegedly told nearly every woman who went to see him that she had to have a hysterectomy.
uncertain
she → say → hysterectomy
Wooten referred to him as a "uterus collector."
asserted
Wooten → refer → collector
Adding to this atrocity, Dr. Amin spoke no Spanish, and many of the vulnerable, detained women he violated spoke no English.
asserted
he → add → English
The New York Times reported, "Both the reviewing doctors and all of the women interviewed by the Times raised concerns about whether Dr. Amin had adequately explained the procedures he performed or provided his patients with less invasive alternatives.
asserted
he → report → alternatives
Spanish-speaking women said a nurse who spoke Spanish was only sporadically present during their exams."
asserted
who → speak → exams
They did not have the faintest idea what he was doing to them.
asserted
he → have → them
Meanwhile, as an independent physician who was under contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, this doctor was paid for each individual procedure that he executed.
asserted
he → pay → that
Upon hearing about the whistleblower's complaint, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the conditions at the detention center as "a staggering abuse of human rights."
asserted
Pelosi → hear → rights
On October 2, 2020, the House of Representatives condemned the practice in a congressional resolution.
asserted
House → condemn → resolution
A congressional investigation finally revealed that "female detainees appear to have undergone excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures" by a physician who was not even certified as a gynecologist.
asserted
who → reveal → gynecologist
And so, over these many years, Black and Indigenous women, migrant women and white women, barely adolescent girls and older women have all had the agency of their bodies seized by others with the explicit goal of controlling their reproductive lives.
asserted
agency → have → lives
I think of enslaved women—my great-great-grandmothers, their sisters and friends, and other enslaved women whose bodies were trafficked and raped on the plantations of my home state.
asserted
I → think → state
Whose children were seized and sold like animals.
asserted
children → seize → animals
Whose capacity to bear children was considered either an asset or a liability but rarely something deeply personal, something that demanded autonomy.
asserted
that → bear → autonomy
I look at detainees whose children were ripped from them, some of whose wombs were ripped out of their bodies.
asserted
some → look → bodies
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia