Feds drop effort to get trans patients’ records from LA children’s hospital
Transgender patients of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles secured a win this week after the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to end its efforts to obtain personal and medical information of more than 3,000 young patients.
Last summer, the federal Justice Department announced that it sent subpoenas to more than 20 medical providers that offered gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, the department said it was doing so to investigate “healthcare fraud” and “false statements.”
Seven families whose children have received gender-affirming services at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles sued in November to quash the subpoena to protect their information.
The department never provided evidence of fraud, said Khadijah Silver, director of Gender Justice & Health Equity at Lawyers for Good Government, one of the firms representing families in the class action lawsuit. The hospital did not not turn over the requested documents.
“It was basically a fishing expedition,” Silver said. “Without any probable cause, they did not have the authority to be seeking medical information.”
The DOJ and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles did not immediately return requests for comment.
The department subpoena demanded the hospital provide a large range of documents, including patient intake forms, insurance claims and “documents sufficient to identify each patient (by name, date of birth, social security number, address, and parent/guardian information) who was prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy,” court documents show.
Under the agreement, filed in federal court Thursday, the Justice Department will withdraw requests for documents that identified patients or their families through 2029.
Attorneys representing patients and their families have moved to dismiss the case.
“This is one piece of a large, very important puzzle, but it does allow our clients to hold on to their basic legal right to medical privacy,” Silver said.
The settlement unfolded the same week that a judge in Baltimore rejected the Trump administration’s request to subpoena the same information from Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C.
The subpoena is not the only federal action that has targeted transgender patients and their providers.
Last year, the Trump administration issued an executive order that threatened to pull federal funding from medical institutions that provide gender-affirming care. Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the summer seeking to block the order.
The federal government has also issued orders that recognize only two biological sexes and prevent transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports. A third order threatens federal funds for schools that support transgender youth.
After federal actions escalated, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles closed the doors to its Center for Transyouth Health and Development last July, leaving about 3,000 young patients in limbo. Other providers in the state have also scaled back gender-affirming services.
“The shutdown came despite efforts my office took over recent months to assure (Children’s Hospital Los Angeles) that they were protected and required to provide gender-affirming care,” Bonta said at the time.
Bonta’s office has filed amicus briefs opposing the Trump administration’s attempts to subpoena medical records of gender-affirming care at other hospitals including University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Colorado. Bonta did not intervene in the case settled this week.
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This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.