Federal investigators demanded details on transgender patients from at least 1 hospital

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press When the U S Justice Department sought information from doctors and clinics that provide gender-affirming care for young transgender patients agents weren t just asking for policies They also demanded information about individual patients Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a message July that the department had sent more than subpoenas to doctors and clinics that provide the care The request represented an elevation in President Donald Trump s administration s effort to halt the diagnostic recovery for transgender youth even in states where it s legal Bondi explained the requests were part of investigations into healthcare fraud false statements and more No charges have been publicized so far but the probes have had a chilling impact on the availability of care Specifics of the requests were not made community until a court filing in a separate lawsuit this week Advocates say the requests are invasive and unnecessary It turns doctor-patient confidentiality into executive surveillance announced Jennifer Levi GLAD Law s senior director of Transgender and Queer Rights Related Articles Appeals court throws out massive civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump At least CDC employees are getting final termination notices union says New work rules could deny food stamps to thousands of veterans Immigrants seeking lawful work and citizenship are now subject to anti-Americanism screening Trump administration revokes measure clearances of current and former regime agents At least one of the requests seeks names and social precaution numbers of patients The subpoena sent to Children s Hospital of Philadelphia on June was included in a legal filing Monday in challenges from the states of Minnesota Oregon and Washington to the administration s attempts to bar the healing for patients under age The -page document demanded an expansive list of documents be provided Among them Documents to identify by name date of birth social guard number address and parent guardian information patients who were prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy The requests also covered personnel files for various categories of hospital employees information about victim intake procedures and about which insurance billing codes the hospital used for gender-affirming care The due date listed was July It s not clear whether subpoenas sent to other providers were identical Neither the hospital nor the Department of Justices responded to requests for comment on Thursday Gender-affirming care has emerged as part of a political and legal battle Gender-affirming care includes a range of biological and mental wellbeing services to backing a person s gender identity including when it s different from the sex they were assigned at birth It encompasses counseling medications that block puberty and hormone therapy to produce physical changes as well as surgeries to transform chests and genitals though those are rare for minors Most of major curative groups say access to the healing is key for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum While there s wide if not universal diagnostic consensus the political situation is contentious Since at least states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care for minors and a U S Supreme Court ruling in June affirmed the states right to have such policies at least under certain conditions Trump has signed one executive order defining sex as only male or female and as unchangeable and another that seeks to end federal funding of the care for patients under He s also sought to bar transgender military utility members and keep transgender athletes out of certain sports competitions And the administration circulated a document that questions the standards of medicine for transgender youth and suggests relying solely on talk therapy rather than physiological interventions The study is one reason specific clinics have halted the care At least eight major hospitals and hospital systems disclosed in July that they were stopping or restricting gender-affirming care even though they re in states where it is not banned Children s Hospital of Philadelphia is not among those that have stated they re curtailing care though a place it has referred patients for surgeries Penn Medicine declared in May that it would no longer perform them on patients under A group of Democratic state leaders across the country are suing the Trump administration claiming it is intimidating healthcare providers to stop the care GLAD Law s Levi explained the assessment is just one of various factors that have led providers to change their policies It s chilling she declared