The U.S. Department of Justice says it has dropped its demand for unredacted sensitive and personal information of more than 3,000 young transgender patients of Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Under an agreement filed last week, the DOJ agreed to withdraw many of its demands for documents that identified CHLA patients or their families.<\/p>\n
The settlement agreement, lodged in Los Angeles federal court, says the DOJ will no longer seek access to minors\u2019 most sensitive unmodified medical records at CHLA \u2014 including mental health treatment notes, prescribing information and other personal details related to gender-affirming care.<\/p>\n
The subpoena was issued as part of what President Donald Trump\u2019s administration said was a probe into potential violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and related offenses.<\/p>\n
In a statement sent to City News Service over the weekend, the DOJ said it is still seeking patient information from the hospital but has instructed CHLA to redact certain patient-identifying details in response to lawsuits from parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of Justice has not withdrawn its subpoena,\u201d according to the statement. \u201cRather, it withdrew three requests for patient records based on the subpoenaed entity\u2019s representation that it did not have custody of any such records.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis settlement avoids needless litigation based on that fact and further instructs Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles to redact patient information in documents responsive to other subpoena requests. As Attorney General (Pam) Bondi has made clear, we will continue to use every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of `care.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
CHLA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.<\/p>\n
More than 20 subpoenas were issued to doctors and clinics involved in providing gender-affirming care to children nationwide in order to investigate the alleged promotion or unlawful dispensing of puberty blockers and hormones to minors.<\/p>\n
Parents of six children who had received gender-affirming care from CHLA filed suit in November to try to quash the subpoena, arguing it violated patients\u2019 constitutional right to privacy and exceeded the government\u2019s legal authority.<\/p>\n
Plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys applauded the settlement agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a massive victory for every family that refused to be intimidated into backing down,\u201d Khadijah Silver, director of Gender Justice & Health Equity at Lawyers for Good Government, which helped bring the lawsuit, said in a statement. \u201cThe government\u2019s attempt to rifle through children\u2019s medical records was unconstitutional from the start. Today\u2019s settlement affirms what we\u2019ve said all along: These families have done nothing wrong, and their children\u2019s privacy deserves protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
The settlement agreement protects the anonymity of the affected youth and families while securing the withdrawal of the government\u2019s demands for their medical records \u2014 and those of their fellow patients, Silver said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis settlement is a crucial affirmation that health care decisions belong in exam rooms, not government subpoenas,\u201d said Cori Racela, executive director for the Western Center on Law & Poverty. \u201cYouth, families, and medical providers have constitutional rights to privacy and dignity. No one\u2019s private health records should be turned into political ammunition \u2014 especially children. This ruling protects sensitive medical records, upholds the professional integrity of providers, and reinforces that families seeking lawful care are not suspects \u2014 they\u2019re entitled to safety and confidentiality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gender-affirming care remains legal in many states and is endorsed by every major medical association, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society. The investigation\u2019s underlying premise has been widely rejected by legal experts and medical professionals, according to Racela.<\/p>\n
CHLA said in June it would close its Center for Transyouth Health and Development and Gender-Affirming Care surgical program. Hospital executives cited challenges including the \u201cshifting policy landscape\u201d for the closure.<\/p>\n
Trump signed an executive order last year impacting gender-affirming care and warned there would be severe consequences to hospitals that continue to offer transgender medicine for pediatric patients. Those consequences would include termination of federal funding and not being able to participate in the Medicaid and Medi-Cal program, according to the White House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Justice says it has dropped its demand for unredacted sensitive and personal information of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[74522,48551,48,52,51,47,50,49,74523,27537,40755,55584,25627,57606],"class_list":["post-150455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-certain","tag-chla","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-must","tag-patients","tag-provide","tag-records","tag-says","tag-trans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}