A federal judge today has given the administration of President Donald Trump until 11:59 p.m. tonight to restore LGBTQ+-inclusive informational pages and others recently removed from the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The pages were reportedly removed to comply with Trump’s executive orders against “gender ideology” and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
The more than 80,000 pages removed from over a dozen U.S. government websites following Trump’s orders include CDC data on LGBTQ+ youth, sexual health, contraception, guidelines for prescribing birth control and gender-affirming care, The Hill reported. It’s unclear how much overall information was removed or whether it remains backed up elsewhere.
Related
Donald Trump removes trans & HIV information from CDC website in “Orwellian” purge
They even took down pages with information about vaccines.
A January 29 memo from Trump’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) instructed all government agencies to remove any public-facing media that “inculcate or promote gender ideology” by January 31.
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While some pages, like the CDC’s Atlas Tool tracking HIV and STIs, have reappeared, they’re less functional than before their removal. The removed information — which also included recommendations for improving clinical studies and treating patients from different genders and cultural backgrounds — is used by countless healthcare workers for research and patient care.
A February 4 lawsuit filed by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen on behalf of the nonprofit organization Doctors for America accused the Trump administration of violating the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Both laws require advanced warnings and explanations for data removal.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates agreed with the organization’s claim that the pages’ removal caused “irreparable harm” to medical providers and their patients.
“The lost materials are more than ‘academic references’—they are vital for real-time clinical decision-making in hospitals, clinics and emergency departments across the country,” Bates wrote, according to Ars Technica. “Without them, health care providers and researchers are left ‘without up-to-date recommendations on managing infectious diseases, public health threats, essential preventive care and chronic conditions.’ … Finally, it bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare.”
In his Tuesday ruling and order, Bates — an appointee of former President George W. Bush — directed the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), the department that oversees the CDC and FDA, to restore pages mentioned in the lawsuit and to work with the doctors’ organization to identify any additional pages that they rely on.
Zachary Shelley, an attorney at Public Citizen, praised the ruling but acknowledged the damage that the pages’ removal has already caused.
“You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube that has already come out,” Shelley said, according to The Hill. “You can stop it from flowing out going forward. Every day that this goes on, there’s harm to the doctors and their patients and public health.”
It’s unclear if the Trump administration will comply with the judge’s order. Various administration officials have signaled their intention not to follow court orders, leaving it unclear who will try to enforce the court decisions, if anybody.
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