Two of the leading national newspapers published investigative reports on Wednesday, August 20 revealing that the Department of Justice (DoJ) has subpoenaed leading hospitals and health systems, demanding highly confidential information related to gender-affirming care for younger transgender patients. Both the Washington Post and New York Times broke their reports on Wednesday afternoon.
First out of the gate was a report by the Washington Post’s Casey Parks and David Ovalle. Parks and Ovalle reported that “The Justice Department is demanding that hospitals turn over a wide range of sensitive information related to medical care for young transgender patients, including billing documents, communication with drug manufacturers and data such as patient dates of birth, Social Security numbers and addresses, according to a copy of a subpoena made public in a court filing this week. The June subpoena to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia requests emails, Zoom recordings, ‘every writing or record of whatever type’ doctors have made, voicemails and text messages on encrypted platforms dating to January 2020 — before hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery had been banned anywhere in the United States,” according to the Post reporters.
Later in the afternoon, the New York Times’s Chris Cameron reported that “A Justice Department subpoena published in court documents this week provided details about the Trump administration’s expansive demands for confidential patient information from doctors and hospitals that provide gender-related treatments for children. The subpoena to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, sent in June, includes a seven-page list of requested documents, including ‘every writing or record of whatever type’ made by doctors related to gender-affirming care, which includes therapy, puberty blockers, hormones and sometimes surgery,” Cameron wrote. “The subpoena, which was reported by The Washington Post, also requested the birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses of patients who received transgender care. In addition to emails, text messages and voice mail records, the subpoena also requested any messages sent or received through the encrypted WhatsApp messaging service, as well as ‘similar applications.’ The records request revealed the extent to which the administration has sought to pierce powerful federal confidentiality protections for patients and their medical providers as part of the government’s pressure campaign to end all transition care for children.”
Cameron wrote further that “In May, nine leading children’s hospitals across the country received letters from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, demanding data on children’s gender-related treatments. Those letters applied explicit financial pressure to the hospitals, saying that ‘hospitals accepting federal funds are expected to meet rigorous quality standards.’ In June, the F.B.I. put out a call to the public to report hospitals and doctors who were performing gender-related surgeries on minors. Last month, a top Justice Department official announced at an event hosted by the Federal Trade Commission that manufacturers of drugs used in transgender care were under investigation for possible violations of drug marketing laws,” he wrote.
Parks and Ovalle noted that “Attorney General Pam Bondi said last month that the Justice Department had issued more than 20 subpoenas seeking to hold ‘medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology’ accountable. It is highly unusual for the nation’s chief law enforcement officer to announce such legal activity. Bondi did not identify who received the subpoenas, what information the government sought or what potential law violations it is investigating.” Further, they added, “According to seven people familiar with the subpoenas, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared retribution, the subpoenas targeted care for patients younger than 19 and went to providers in states that still allow gender care for minors, as well as states where it has been banned. The subpoena, as well as public statements by Bondi’s chief of staff, indicate the federal government is attempting to build cases against medical providers that allege they may have violated civil and criminal statutes while providing care that was legal in their states.”
And, they added, “The government’s unprecedented effort to gather this type of information related to gender transition care is having a chilling effect: Since the subpoenas went out, more than a dozen hospitals across the U.S. have scaled back or ended gender transition programs for people under the age of 19. Most are in blue states. Parents say they are scrambling to find doctors before their children’s prescriptions for puberty blockers or hormones run out. Doctors treating young trans patients where such care remains legal say they fear federal authorities will prosecute them on dubious charges.” And they quoted “one Midwestern doctor as telling them that, “Frankly, I’m looking over my shoulder driving home,” after that doctor was compelled “to turn over a work cellphone to supervisors after their hospital received a Justice Department subpoena; the doctor asked not to be identified for fear of drawing additional law enforcement attention.
The intense federal scrutiny comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Skrmetti, which upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors. Legal experts warn the ruling threatens to open the door for states to ban care for trans adults as well. Leah Litman, a constitutional law professor at the University of Michigan and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, told The Advocate that the Court’s conservative majority is laying the groundwork for even broader restrictions.
A former senior DOJ official who served in the Biden administration told The Advocate that Congress has the power to investigate all of these actions. “Under the Constitution, Congress has not just the right but the obligation to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. It has the obligation to have its own view of the constitutionality of the actions of the Executive Branch, the compliance with statutory limitations, the propriety of the actions of agencies like the Department of Justice,” the official said.
Per all of this, Christopher Wiggins, a reporter for The Advocate, a national newsmagazine covering issues of importance to the LGBTQ community, wrote on July 11 that “All major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Psychiatric Association, support gender-affirming care for minors as evidence-based, effective, and safe when delivered under the supervision of qualified physicians. Decades of research show that such care, which may include social support, puberty blockers, hormones, or in some cases surgery, improves mental health outcomes and reduces rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among transgender youth.”
And, Wiggins noted, “Recent research published in JAMA Pediatrics has shown that fewer than 0.1 percent of U.S. adolescents receive gender-affirming medications. The study, based on insurance data from more than 5 million youth between 2018 and 2022, found that only 926 adolescents were prescribed puberty blockers, and about 1,927 received hormones. “We are not seeing inappropriate use of this sort of care,” said Landon Hughes, lead author and Harvard public health researcher, in comments to PBS NewsHour. “And it’s certainly not happening at the rate at which people think it is.”
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