The U.S. Department of Justice has agreed to stop demanding medical records that identify young patients who received gender-affirming care from Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles, ending a legal standoff with families who sued to block a subpoena that some feared would be used to criminally prosecute the parents of transgender kids.<\/p>\n
The agreement, filed in federal court Thursday, allows the hospital to withhold certain records and redact personal information from others who underwent gender-affirming treatments, which Trump administration officials have compared to child mutilation despite support for such care by the nation\u2019s major medical associations.<\/p>\n
Several parents of CHLA patients expressed profound relief Friday, while also acknowledging that other threats to their families remain.<\/p>\n
Jesse Thorn, the father of two transgender children who had been patients at Children\u2019s Hospital, said hospital officials have ignored his requests for information as to whether they had already shared his kids\u2019 data with the Trump administration, which had been scary. Hearing they had not, and now won\u2019t, provided \u201ctwo-fold\u201d relief, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe escalations have been so relentless in the threats to our family, and one of the things that compounded that was the uncertainty about what the federal government knew about our kids\u2019 medical care and what they were going to do about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Less clear is whether the agreement provides any new protections for doctors and other hospital personnel who provided care at the clinic and have also been targeted by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
The agreement follows similar victories for families seeking to block such disclosures by gender-affirming care clinics elsewhere in the country, including a ruling Thursday for the families of transgender kids who received treatment at Children\u2019s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s unique here is this was a class action,\u201d said Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and legal instructor at Harvard, who was not involved in the Los Angeles case. \u201cI can\u2019t undersell what a major win that is to protect the records of all these patients.\u201d <\/p>\n
Some litigation remains ongoing, with families fearful appeals to higher courts could end with different results. There is also Republican-backed legislation moving through Congress to restrict gender-affirming care for youths.<\/p>\n
Another father of a transgender patient at Children\u2019s Hospital, who requested anonymity because he fears for his child\u2019s safety, said he was grateful for the agreement, but doesn\u2019t see it as the end of the road. He fears the Trump administration could renew its subpoena if it wins on appeal in cases elsewhere. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some comfort, but it doesn\u2019t close the book on it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Times, the Justice Department said it \u201chas not withdrawn its subpoena. Rather, 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,\u201d the DOJ statement said. \u201cAs Attorney General 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 \u2018care.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Children\u2019s Hospital did not respond to a request for comment. <\/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 Friday. \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
Until last summer, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles was among the largest and oldest pediatric gender clinics in the United States \u2014 and one of few providing puberty blockers, hormones and surgical procedures for trans youth on public insurance.<\/p>\n
It was also among the first programs to shutter under coordinated, multi-agency pressure exerted from the White House. Ending treatment for transgender children has been a central policy goal for the Trump administration since the president resumed office last year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese threats are no longer theoretical,\u201d Children\u2019s Hospital executives wrote to staff in an internal email announcing the closure of the clinic in June. \u201c[They are] threatening our ability to serve the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on CHLA for lifesaving care.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi announced the Justice Department was subpoenaing patient records from gender-affirming care providers, specifically stating that medical professionals were a target of a probe into \u201corganizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n
California law explicitly protects gender-affirming care, and the state and others led by Democrats have fought back in court, but most providers nationwide have shuttered under the White House push, stirring fear of a de facto ban.<\/p>\n
Parents feared the subpoenas could lead to child abuse charges, which the government could then use to strip them of custody of their children. Doctors feared they could be arrested and imprisoned for providing medical care that is broadly backed by the medical establishment and is legal in the states where they performed it.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department\u2019s subpoena to Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles had initially requested a vast array of personally identifying documents, specially calling for records \u201csufficient 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also called for records \u201crelating to the clinical indications, diagnoses, or assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy,\u201d and for records \u201crelating to informed consent, patient intake, and parent or guardian authorization for minor patients\u201d to receive gender-affirming care.<\/p>\n
According to the new agreement, the Justice Department withdrew its requests for those specific records \u2014 which had yet to be produced by the hospital \u2014 on Dec. 8, and told Children\u2019s Hospital to redact the personally identifying information of patients in other records it was still demanding.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s agreement formalizes that position, and requires the Justice Department to return or destroy any records that provide personally identifying information moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government will not use this patient identifying information to support any investigation or prosecution,\u201d the agreement states.<\/p>\n
According to the attorneys for the families who sued, the settlement protects the records of their clients but also all of the clinic\u2019s other gender-affirming care patients. \u201cTo date, they assured us, no identifiable patient information has been received, and now it cannot be,\u201d said Amy Powell, with Lawyers for Good Government.<\/p>\n
Cori Racela, executive director for Western Center on Law & Poverty, called it a \u201ccrucial affirmation that healthcare decisions belong in exam rooms, not government subpoenas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYouth, families, and medical providers have constitutional rights to privacy and dignity,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cNo one\u2019s private health records should be turned into political ammunition \u2014 especially children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agreement was also welcomed by families of transgender kids beyond Southern California.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been hanging over those families specifically in L.A., of course, but for all families,\u201d said Arne Johnson, a Bay Area father of a transgender child who helps run a group of similar families called Rainbow Families Action. \u201cEvery time one of these subpoenas goes out, it\u2019s terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said each victory pushing back against the government\u2019s demands for family medical records feels \u201clike somebody is pointing a gun at your kid and a hero comes along and knocks it out of their hand \u2014 it\u2019s literally that visceral of a feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said he hopes recent court wins will push hospitals to resist canceling care for transgender children.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents are the ones that are fighting back and they\u2019re the ones that are winning, and the hospitals should take their lead,\u201d he said. \u201cHospitals should be fighting in the same way the parents are, so that their doctors and other providers can be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Justice has agreed to stop demanding medical records that identify young patients who received…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":538217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[38670,1582,276,13986,237812,245,246,6478,12644,15428,2961,224,2444,5337,6976,13987,34961,46099,237813,38974],"class_list":{"0":"post-538216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-agreement","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-care","12":"tag-child-mutilation","13":"tag-children","14":"tag-family","15":"tag-hospital","16":"tag-information","17":"tag-justice-department","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-times","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-parent","23":"tag-patient","24":"tag-record","25":"tag-subpoena","26":"tag-transgender-kid","27":"tag-trump-administration-official"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115947232774057912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}