A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration, preventing the White House from deleting additional information from several government health websites.
Numerous pages belonging to Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have been deleted since Jan. 20, after President Donald Trump took office. The deletions were due to Executive Order 14168, which ordered government agencies to limit discussions of sex and gender to male and female.
“My Administration will defend women's rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male,” the order reads.
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The court ruled that the Trump administration must restore pages that were deleted by the end of Tuesday. The temporary restraining order means that the case will be further adjudicated at a later date.
Doctors for America argued that the information being removed from government health websites includes “a broad range of health-related data and other information used by health professionals and researchers.” It added that “the removal of key webpages and datasets 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.”
“Like many of my colleagues, I am both a doctor who takes care of patients and a researcher. Removing critical clinical information and datasets from the websites of the CDC, FDA, and HHS not only puts the health of our patients at risk but also endangers research that improves the health and healthcare of the American public,” said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a member of the board of directors for Doctors for America. “Federal public health agencies must reinstate these resources in full to protect our patients.”
The Trump administration argued that Doctors for America lacked standing to bring the lawsuit and that it would not face irreparable harm.
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Doctors for America claimed that the executive order violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which ultimately requires agencies to keep the public informed about the functions of government.
“It bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans seeking healthcare,” Judge John Bates wrote. “These individuals rely on the care of doctors like Liou and Ramachandran. If those doctors cannot provide these individuals with the care they need (and deserve) 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. The public thus has a strong interest in avoiding these serious injuries to public health.”
