August 21, 2025
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
The U.S. Department of Justice issued subpoenas to hospitals in June demanding documents related to gender-affirming medical care they provided to transgender patients younger than 19. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the institutions ordered to turn over sensitive information.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was among more than 20 health care institutions and doctors subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice in June for information and sensitive patient data on medical care provided to transgender patients under 19, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
The documents requested from CHOP included billing information, communications between doctors and patients, and the dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers of patients. The subpoena CHOP received reportedly demanded "every writing or record of whatever type" related to treatments such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery dating back to 2020.
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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Justice Department's actions in July, saying investigations would seek to uncover health care fraud and false statements made by medical professionals and institutions. Bondi said many doctors and organizations had "mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology" and would face accountability under the Trump administration.
Providing gender-affirming medical care to minors has come under fire in large parts of the country, where about half of states have passed laws restricting drug therapies and surgeries for children undergoing transitions. In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Tennessee law banning such care for children is constitutional.
Sources who spoke with the Post said the Justice Department's push to investigate and potentially prosecute U.S. medical providers is an unprecedented use of federal authority to gather personal and medical data. Many doctors declined interviews out of fear of retribution, while parents described sudden fears that they will not be able to obtain medication for their kids. More than a dozen hospitals have shuttered or limited their gender transition programs this summer in response to the subpoenas, the Post reported.
CHOP did not respond to a request for comment Thursday about whether it complied with the Justice Department's subpoena to turn over documents. The hospital's Gender and Sexuality Development Program offers medical and mental health care to children and young adults who are gender nonconforming, gender expansive and transgender.
Private insurance data compiled this year by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that fewer than 3,000 adolescents in the United States are on puberty blockers or hormone treatments, although the number of people identifying as transgender is much larger. The Williams Institute at UCLA released estimates this week that about 2.8 million people 13 and older identify as transgender — about 1% of the U.S. population in that age group — and about 724,000 in that figure are between 13 and 17 years old.
The Justice Department has not said what it intends to do with the information it gathers from hospitals, many of which are located in blue states.
“The DOJ using its broad powers to prevent fraud as a tool to target a disfavored minority group is deeply troubling” Elizabeth Gill, senior counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post. “Not just for trans people but for anyone that the administration decides they don’t approve of.”
