DOJ drops demand for Children’s Hospital L.A. transgender care records

The U.S. Justice Department has agreed to stop requiring medical records identifying young patients who received gender-affirming care from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, ending a legal standoff with families who sued to block a subpoena that some feared could be used to criminally prosecute parents of transgender children.

The agreement, filed in federal court Thursday, allows the hospital to withhold certain records and redact personal information of others who underwent gender-affirming treatments, which Trump administration officials have compared to child mutilation despite support for such care from the nation’s leading medical associations.

Several parents of CHLA patients expressed deep relief Friday, while acknowledging that other threats remain for their families.

Jesse Thorn, a father of two transgender children who had been patients at the children’s hospital, said hospital officials ignored his requests for information about whether they had ever shared his children’s data with the Trump administration, which was frightening. Hearing that they hadn’t, and won’t, brought a “double” relief, he said.

“The threats against our family have been so relentless, and one of the things that made that worse was the uncertainty about what the federal government knew about our children’s medical care and what they were going to do about it,” he said.

It is less clear whether the agreement provides new protections for doctors and other hospital staff who provided care at the clinic and who were also targeted by the Trump administration.

The agreement follows similar victories by families seeking to block such disclosures by gender-affirming care clinics elsewhere in the country, including a ruling Thursday for families of transgender children who received treatment at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

“What’s unique here is that it’s a class action,” said Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and Harvard law professor who was not involved in the Los Angeles case. “I cannot understate what a major victory it is to protect the records of all of these patients. »

Some litigation remains ongoing, with families concerned that appeals to higher courts could lead to different results. There is also Republican-backed legislation moving through Congress to restrict gender-affirming care for young people.

Another father of a transgender patient at Children’s Hospital, who requested anonymity because he fears for his child’s safety, said he was grateful for the deal but didn’t view it as the end of the road. He fears the Trump administration will renew his subpoena if it wins appeals in other cases.

“There is some comfort, but that doesn’t close the book,” he said.

In a statement to the Times, the Justice Department said it “did not withdraw its subpoena. Rather, it withdrew three requests for patient records based on the subpoenaed entity’s statement that it did not have custody of such records.”

“This settlement avoids unnecessary litigation based on this fact and further requires Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to redact patient information in documents responding to other subpoena requests,” the DOJ statement said. “As Attorney General Bondi has made clear, we will continue to use all available legal and law enforcement tools to protect innocent children from mutilation under the guise of “care.”

Children’s Hospital did not respond to a request for comment.

“This is a massive victory for every family who refused to be intimidated and back down,” Khadijah Silver, director of gender justice and health equity at Lawyers for Good Government, which helped bring the lawsuit, said in a statement Friday. “The government’s attempt to dig into children’s medical records was unconstitutional from the start. Today’s settlement confirms what we have been saying all along: these families did nothing wrong and their children’s privacy deserves to be protected.”

Until last summer, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles was one of the largest and oldest pediatric gender clinics in the United States — and one of the few providing puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries to trans youth on public insurance.

It was also one of the first programs to be shut down under coordinated, multi-agency pressure from the White House. Ending the treatment of transgender children has been a central policy goal of the Trump administration since the president took office last year.

“These threats are no longer theoretical,” children’s hospital leaders wrote to staff in an internal email announcing the clinic’s closure in June. “[They are] threatening our ability to serve the hundreds of thousands of patients who rely on CHLA for lifesaving care.

In July, Atty. General Pam Bondi announced that the Justice Department was subpoenaing patient records of gender-affirming health care providers, specifically stating that medical professionals were the target of an investigation into “organizations that mutilate children in the service of a distorted ideology.”

California law explicitly protects gender-affirming care, and the state and other Democratic-led agencies have fought back in court, but most providers nationwide have closed under pressure from the White House, sparking fears of a de facto ban.

Parents feared that the subpoenas would lead to child abuse charges, which the government could then use to take away custody of their children. Doctors feared arrest and imprisonment for providing medical care that was widely supported by the medical establishment and legal in the states where they provided it.

The Justice Department’s subpoena to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles had initially requested a wide range of personally identifying documents, specifically calling for records “sufficient to identify each patient.” [by name, date of birth, social security number, address, and parent/guardian information] who have been prescribed puberty blockers or hormonal treatment.

It also requested records “relating to clinical indications, diagnoses or assessments that formed the basis for the prescription of puberty blockers or hormonal treatment,” as well as records “relating to informed consent, patient admission, and authorization of parents or guardians for minor patients” to receive gender-affirming care.

Under the new agreement, the Justice Department withdrew its requests for those specific records — which had not yet been produced by the hospital — on Dec. 8, and asked Children’s Hospital to remove patients’ personally identifiable information in other records it still required.

Thursday’s agreement formalizes this position and requires the Justice Department to return or destroy any records providing personally identifying information in the future.

“The government will not use this patient identifying information to support an investigation or prosecution,” the agreement states.

According to lawyers for the families who filed the lawsuit, the settlement protects the records of their clients but also of all other patients receiving gender-affirming care from the clinic. “To date, they assured us, no identifiable patient information has been received, and now it cannot be,” said Amy Powell, of Lawyers for Good Government.

Cori Racela, executive director of the Western Center on Law & Poverty, called it “a crucial affirmation that health care decisions belong in exam rooms, not government subpoenas.”

“Young people, families and health care providers have constitutional rights to privacy and dignity,” she said in a statement. “No one’s private medical records should be turned into political ammunition, especially those of children. »

The agreement was also welcomed by families of transgender children beyond Southern California.

“It takes a toll on these families specifically in Los Angeles, of course, but for all families,” said Arne Johnson, a father of a transgender child in the Bay Area who helps lead a group of similar families called Rainbow Families Action. “Every time one of these subpoenas is issued, it’s terrifying.”

Johnson said every victory against government demands for family medical records feels like “someone points a gun at your kid and a hero comes along and knocks it out of their hands — it’s literally a visceral feeling.”

Johnson said he hoped recent court victories would push hospitals to resist rolling back care for transgender children.

“It’s parents who fight back and they win, and hospitals should take the lead,” he said. “Hospitals should fight the same way parents do, so their doctors and other providers can be protected. »