Judge orders HHS agencies to restore health information
Executive orders from President Donald Trump that resulted in a number of pages being pulled from the websites of public health agencies has been partially reversed by a federal judge.
In a Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) until midnight to restore information pertinent to public health that was taken down by the Trump administration.
The challenge was brought by Doctors for America, a physician lobby, which argued the health data and treatment guidelines removed from the agency websites put the public at risk, as providers rely on those resources to make informed decisions about patient care.
Bates ultimately agreed, convinced by the arguments of two doctors who said abruptly pulling the information posed a risk to public health.
“[Doctors] cannot provide these individuals the care they need … within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions,” he wrote.
Further, Bates concurred patients also rely on the research and information related to common illnesses—including sexually transmitted diseases and associated treatments—that were scrubbed from the websites of the FDA and CDC.
“It bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare,” he argued.
The information in question was pulled to comply with multiple executive orders, including one that banned all references to “gender ideology,” which included a sweeping ban on words such as “transgender” and “gender” more broadly.
Another executive order banned comments that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Regardless of the intent of these orders, the downstream effect has been the removal of a large amount of webpages and data, relating to everything from contraception to facts on race-related health outcomes.
In many instances, it’s not entirely clear what the rationale was for content being scrubbed, with Bates adding that the purge was done “without adequate notice or reasoned explanation.”
The websites of all agencies under HHS began the mass deletion on Jan. 30.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.