After the Department of Justice issued a wide-ranging subpoena to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles last June, the records of more than 3,000 patients now will be protected until at least February 2029 under a settlement reached between patient families and the federal government.
What the federal government was seeking
The DOJ wanted to pull a wide swath of information from CHLA’s records related to hormone therapy prescriptions. The identities and social security numbers of the people they were prescribed to were included in the request, as well as "documents relating to the clinical indications, diagnoses, or assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy."
Lawyers for CHLA patient families said the broad request included details of patients’ sexual health data and records of their mental health and said the inquiry violated their constitutional rights.
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What patient families’ lawyers are saying
“This is a massive victory for every family that refused to be intimidated into backing down,” said Khadijah Silver, director of gender justice and health equity at Lawyers for Good Government, in a statement. “The government's attempt to rifle through children's medical records was unconstitutional from the start.”
Silver also noted that DOJ confirmed it had not received any sensitive patient data under the parts of the subpoena that had been struck down.
What’s in the settlement
Under the agreement, which was first reported by Reuters, the federal government has withdrawn its requests for personal information like social security numbers, prescription records and “documents relating to the clinical indications, diagnoses or assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy.”
The government cannot make new requests of this type to CHLA until February 2029. The settlement also establishes a process for the DOJ to continue to pursue seeking some limited redacted medical records from CHLA.
What it means for parents and children
In the aftermath of the subpoenas, many advocates were worried that families would face federal prosecution for seeking gender-affirming care for their children.
However, according to the settlement, the DOJ said it “is not currently aware of information that would support the federal prosecution of parents or guardians who have sought and consented to receiving gender-related care for their children at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.”
What the hospital and DOJ say
In a statement emailed to LAist, a DOJ official clarified that the subpoena has not been withdrawn wholesale even though the wide-ranging requests have been dropped.
"This settlement avoids needles litigation based on that fact and further instructs Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to redact patient information in documents responsive to other subpoena requests," the DOJ spokesperson wrote. "As Attorney General Bondi has made clear, we will continue to use every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of ‘care.’"
The claim that trans youth seeking health care are subject to "mutilation" stems from a Jan. 2025 executive order seeking to restrict gender-affirming care for people under 19. That characterization has been sharply denounced by many advocates and medical professionals.
What the hospital says
LAist has reached out for comment and has not heard back.
The backstory
According to the settlement, the subpoena to CHLA was issued on or about June 11, 2025. CHLA announced it planned to close its clinic for trans youth on June 12, 2025, citing pressure from the federal government.
The DOJ announced the existence of over 20 subpoenas issued to providers of gender-affirming care nationwide in July, though many CHLA patient families remained in the dark about whether they were affected.
Judges have ruled against similar requests and struck down subpoenas seeking records from other hospitals, like Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Boston Children’s Hospital.
CHLA's gender-affirming care center was the second-oldest clinic of its kind in the country after Boston Children's. Over the course of over three decades in operation, it became a pioneer in the development of best practices for gender-affirming care for youth. At the time of its closure, it was the largest clinic of its kind in the world.
