Justice Dept. Demands Private Patient Info From Trans Youth Medicine Providers

The Justice Department has issued subpoenas demanding confidential patient information from more than 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-related treatments to minors, according to officials with knowledge of the move.

The action marks a new turn in the Trump administration’s efforts to limit transgender medical care. Most of the subpoenas, issued through a unit that typically investigates health care fraud, attempt to pierce powerful federal confidentiality protections for patients and their medical providers.

Officials briefed on the investigation described the action as a fact-finding mission, an effort to determine whether any laws have been broken and a spur to kick-start negotiations with the providers over transgender treatment policy.

Investigators could eventually seek criminal charges if evidence of fraud is uncovered, officials said. But critics say the motivation is more political than investigative — a campaign of intimidation.

The subpoenas are part of a coordinated effort between the Justice Department and the White House to fulfill President Trump’s promises to curtail pediatric gender care. Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said in a statement Wednesday that “medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable.”

Revelations of the subpoenas come in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that upheld state laws banning youth gender medicine in about half the country. Hospitals and doctors in other states, where legislatures are unlikely to enact such bans, have faced increasing threats from the federal government. In response, a small number of clinics have limited their treatments or closed altogether.