Pam Bondi. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The Justice Department has asked hospitals to share a wide range of sensitive information about transgender patients younger than 19, according to a subpoena that was made public in a court filing this week.
Per the document, which was issued to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the agency has demanded billing information, communication with drugmakers, and data like patients’ birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses, along with emails, Zoom recordings, “every writing or record of whatever type” providers have made, voicemails, and text messages.
The request covers material going back as far as January 2020, well before gender affirming care was banned anywhere in the U.S. About half of the states have since passed restrictions, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling them constitutional in this summer’s decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in July that the Justice Department had issued more than 20 subpoenas seeking to hold “medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology” accountable.
Legal experts told the Washington Post that her disclosure of these details about the agency’s issuance of subpoenas was unusual, and that the breadth of information requested in the subpoenas was unprecedented.
Sources told the paper that the subpoenas were sent to providers in states where it is legal to administer gender affirming care for minor patients and to providers in states that have passed bans or restrictions.
Jacob T. Elberg, a law professor and former federal prosecutor, told the Post that under federal privacy laws, the DOJ must show that its collection of sensitive and personally identifying patient information was for a legitimate law enforcement purpose.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
