MSNBC settles defamation suit with doctor they claimed was mass sterilizing women at ICE detention centers

The parent company of MSNBC, NBC Universal, has reached a settlement after being sued for defamation by a Georgia gynecologist who said the news network made  “verifiably false statements about the doctor being a “uterus collector.” Multiple hosts said the doctor was performing mass hysterectomies on female detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

The lawsuit was targeted at programming coming from hosts Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, and Chris Hayes that accused Georgia gynecologist Dr. Mahendra Amin of being a “uterus collector” and performing unnecessary hysterectomies en masse at the ICE center, according to Fox News.

According to a statement obtained by the outlet, both parties have signed a term sheet for the settlement and are working out the exact language of the settlement in the next few weeks. In June, US District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood previously ruled that "the undisputed evidence establishes that multiple NBC statements are false,” but the jury trial has been cancelled due to the settlement.

"NBC investigated the whistleblower letter's accusations; that investigation did not corroborate the accusations and even undermined some; NBC republished the letter's accusations anyway," Judge Wood wrote in the 108-page summary.

Amin said that the “false and defamatory” statements from the hosts were made six different times on “Deadline: White House,” 10 times on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” as well as seven times on “All in with Chris Hayes.”

The judge determined that "there were no mass hysterectomies or a high number of hysterectomies at the facility," disproving the claims made by a whistleblower. She also found that Dr. Mahendra Amin, the plaintiff in the case, had only performed two hysterectomies on detainees and was not a "uterus collector," as the whistleblower had suggested.

Wood also noted that "undisputed evidence has established" that "there were no mass hysterectomies or high numbers of hysterectomies at the facility.” There were only two hysterectomies performed by Amin, and he is in no way a “uterus collector," the judge said.