The Justice Department on July 9 announced it subpoenaed “more than 20” providers of youth gender-affirming care, targeting doctors and clinics, in the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s nationwide attack on transgender individuals.
The Justice Department’s brief press release said it is conducting investigations into healthcare fraud, false statements, and “more,” though it did not offer further details on those probes.
“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a written statement in the release.
It is not clear which doctors or clinics were issued subpoenas and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email from Gay City News seeking more information about the subpoenas.
Bondi’s reference to “mutilated children” is consistent with the kind of offensive rhetoric championed by the Trump administration, including the president himself, who repeatedly made false and discriminatory comments about transgender individuals on the campaign trail and continued to go after trans rights in multiple executive orders upon his return to the White House.
The move comes nearly six months after President Trump signed an executive order seeking to ban the use of federal funds for gender-affirming care for youth and adults under the age of 19. That order, dubbed “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which has been held up by multiple federal courts, also called on the Health and Human Services secretary to employ a broader approach that would include taking “all appropriate actions to end” gender-affirming care, “including regulatory and sub-regulatory actions.”
While many state laws targeting youth gender-affirming care are confined to red states, the issue hit close to home for New Yorkers in January when multiple New York City-based hospitals pulled back on gender-affirming care for youth in response to the executive order.
The former television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, who now serves as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote a letter on May 28 to some providers of gender-affirming care “to address significant issues concerning quality standards and specific procedures affecting children at your institution.” The New York Times reported that the letter was delivered to nine leading children’s hospitals around the country.
Oz went on to write that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “believes that these interventions were initiated with an underdeveloped body of evidence, lack reliable evidence of benefits for minors, and are now known to carry serious risks of long-term and irreparable harm.” The letter asked providers to provide information about how they carry out their work and how the plan to make changes “in light of the… corresponding guidance released by the department.” The letter also sought billing codes, profit margins, projected revenues, and other information.
The Trump administration’s full-court press against trans rights also extends to many other areas, including school athletics and the military, which has moved to ban trans service members. The Trump administration last month accused the California Department of Education of violating federal law by allowing trans athletes to play in accordance with their gender identity, threatening “imminent enforcement action.” The State of California, in turn, refused to bow to the Trump administration, with the state’s Department of Education informing the White House that it disagrees with the determination and would not comply with the administration.
The Department of Justice posted a YouTube video on July 9 showing Bondi and Education Secretary Linda McMahon announcing a Title IX lawsuit against California in response to the state’s refusal to bow to the Trump administration’s demands to impose an anti-trans sports policy.
“We’ve made it very clear: Only women and women’s sports under Title IX,” said Bondi, who also blasted inclusion in locker rooms and deliberately misgendered transgender individuals.
“No boys will be allowed in women’s locker rooms, no longer,” Bondi said. “We’ve sued Maine, we’re in litigation with Minnesota, and if you do not comply, you’re next.”
