DOJ ends bidding on health records of transgender patients in California

Transgender patients at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles won this week after the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to end efforts to obtain personal and medical information of more than 3,000 young patients.

Last summer, the federal Department of Justice announced that he had sent summonses of more than 20 medical providers who offered care to gender-affirming minors. At the time, the department said it was doing so to investigate “healthcare fraud” and “false statements.”

Seven families whose children received gender confirmation services at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles filed a lawsuit in November to quash the subpoena to protect their information.

The department has never provided evidence of fraud, said Khadija Silver, director of gender justice and health equity at Lawyers for Good Government, one of the firms representing families in the class action. The hospital did not submit the requested documents.

“It was basically a fishing expedition,” Silver said. “Without any probable cause, they did not have the authority to seek medical information.”

The Justice Department and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles did not immediately return requests for comment.

The department’s subpoena required the hospital to provide a wide 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.

According to the agreement, filed in federal court ThursdayThe Justice Department will withdraw requests for documents identifying patients or their families by 2029.

Attorneys representing the patients and their families moved to have the case dismissed.

“This is one piece of a large, very important puzzle, but it allows our clients to maintain their basic legal right to medical privacy,” Silver said.

The deal took place that week a judge in Baltimore refused the Trump administration’s request to subpoena the same information from Children’s National Hospital in Washington

The subpoena is not the only federal action targeting transgender patients and their providers.

Last year, the Trump administration issued an executive order that threatened to pull federal funding from medical facilities that provide gender-affirming care. Attorney General Rob Bonta sued over the summer wants to block the order.

The federal government has also issued orders that recognize only two biological sexes and prevention of transgender girls and women from participation in women’s sports. A third order threatens federal funds for schools that support transgender youth.

After the federal crackdown escalated, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles closed the doors of its Center for Trans Youth Health and Development last July, leaving about 3,000 young patients in limbo. Other providers in the state also reduced gender confirmation services.

“The closure comes despite the efforts my office has made in recent months to ensure (Children’s Hospital Los Angeles) that they are 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 for gender-affirming care at other hospitals, including University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Colorado. Bonta did not intervene in the case, which was settled this week.