Doctors Group Sues Federal Agencies For Scrubbing Online Health Data
Doctors for America, a group that represents thousands of medical professionals across all 50 states, is pushing back against President Donald Trump's administration over its decision to remove public health data and other information from government websites that health care experts use every day.
The group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal district court with help from Public Citizen, a legal advocacy organization, to challenge the Office of Personnel Management for allegedly directing the removal, as well as health agencies that took the information down: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the overarching Department of Health and Human Services.
OPM issued a memo last month following Trump's Day 1 executive order on 'defending women.' The order calls on federal agencies to officially 'recognize two sexes, male and female,' and to 'use the term 'sex' and not 'gender'' in official documents. OPM told agency heads that they had two days to end programs that 'promote or inculcate gender ideology' and take down any 'outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology,' among other things.
Information removed included data on risk behaviors in children, materials guiding researchers on developing clinical trials, data on HIV infections and much more.
The lawsuit stated that the removal 'creates a dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, deprives physicians of resources that guide clinical practice, and takes away key resources for communicating and engaging with patients.'
'The removal of this information deprives researchers of access to information that is necessary for treating patients, for developing clinical studies that produce results that accurately reflect the effects treatments will have in clinical practice, and for developing practices and policies that protect the health of vulnerable populations and the country as a whole,' the suit said.
Zach Shelley, a lawyer for Public Citizen Litigation Group who is leading the suit, said in a statement that federal public health agencies 'exist to serve the American people by protecting public health.'
'Removing this vital information flouts that mandate,' he added.
Trump has signed dozens of executive orders in his first days in office, sparking a flurry of legal action in protest.
A separate suit filed in response to the gender-related order was brought by a transgender woman in federal prison to stop her from being transferred to a men's facility and being denied gender-affirming care. A judge temporarily halted the transfer.
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