Judge orders HHS, CDC and FDA to restore deleted webpages with health information

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration to restore webpages and data that had been scrubbed in compliance with President Trump’s executive order on gender ideology while litigation moves forward.

U.S. District Judge John Bates agreed to grant a temporary restraining order sought by the group Doctors for America, which argued that its members used the websites when treating patients and conducting research. The nonprofit organization said that the removal of the webpages by the Department of Health and Human Services and its components violated federal law.

Bates found that the challengers were likely to succeed in their claims that the Department Health and Human Services, CDC and FDA acted unlawfully when they stripped medical information from public-facing websites.

“It bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare,” he wrote. Citing declarations from two doctors filed in the case, Bates said if they “cannot provide these individuals 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 the public health.”

His order directs the agencies to restore earlier versions of their websites by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. It comes after Bates held a hearing on the matter Monday.

Signed on his first day in office, Mr. Trump’s executive order on gender ideology stated that the U.S. recognizes two sexes, male and female, and it directed agencies to remove “all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.”

Days after the president issued his order, the Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum ordering all agencies by 5 p.m. on Jan. 31 to take down all websites, social media accounts and other public-facing media “that inculcate or promote gender ideology.” In response to the memo, the CDC and FDA took offline numerous webpages and data sets, including recommendations on how physicians should treat sexually transmitted infections and adult immunization guidance.

While the wording on some websites was adjusted to adhere to Mr. Trump’s directive, allowing them to stay online, other information, like data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, was removed completely.

The agency said in a banner on its main website that it was “being modified to comply with President Trump’s executive orders.”

Doctors for America filed its lawsuit against the health agencies on Feb. 4, alleging they violated a federal law that governs the agency rulemaking process and another that requires federal agencies to ensure the public has “timely and equitable access” to their public information.

The group argued in court papers that its members relied on the scrubbed information to provide treatment, conduct research and inform public health responses on topics like youth risk behaviors, adolescent health and HIV.

Doctors for America said some of its members were already experiencing challenges as a result of losing access to information from the CDC. In one instance, it said a Chicago-based physician who works at a clinic serving low-income immigrant families could not consult the CDC’s website for resources on how to address a chlamydia outbreak at a local high school and bolster STI testing and prevention efforts. 

Another doctor, who is also a researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, said in a declaration that she lost the ability to consult CDC resources about prescribing treatments.

“These doctors’ time and effort are valuable, scarce resources, and being forced to spend them elsewhere makes their jobs harder and their treatment less effective,” Bates wrote.

He said that the Department of Health and Human Services, CDC and FDA face a minimal burden if required to store access to health resources, which have been available to the public for years.

“There is nothing in either the OPM memorandum or the record, and indeed defendants proffered no information at the hearing, to suggest the restoration of the removed webpages would pose a burden on the agencies’ ability to engage in their work,” Bates wrote. “Similarly, there is no information to suggest that restoring public access would even interfere with the agencies’ ongoing efforts to conform those resources with the president’s executive orders.”

The order from Bates comes as Mr. Trump has faced numerous setbacks in the courts stemming from lawsuits targeting his administration’s actions. On Monday alone, five different judges took action that favored challenges to Mr. Trump’s directives on birthright citizenship, a freeze on federal funding, cuts to how medical research grants are funded and his deferred resignation program.