A watchdog group is suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for all records of communications of Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine following a report that the trans-identified official’s team pressured an international medical group to remove age limits for body-mutilating gender surgeries and other life-altering interventions.
The conservative nonprofit group Judicial Watch announced Friday that it had filed the lawsuit earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the HHS did not respond in a timely manner to a July Freedom of Information Act request.
According to the filing, the FOIA request sought records of all communications to and from HHS Assistant Secretary Levine discussing the removal of proposed limits for surgical gender interventions in the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s 2022 Standards of Care.
After the group published its Standards of Care, media outlets noticed that it had removed a section on the minimum age requirements for children to obtain puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or undergo body-altering surgeries.
In June, The New York Times shared the excerpts exchanged between Levine’s staff and WPATH, which indicated that the HHS official was in favor of removing age limits on interventions for gender dysphoric minors, fearing they could leave doctors subject to lawsuits. The excerpts were part of legal filings in a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on gender surgeries and hormonal drugs for children.
“Biden-Harris appointee Admiral Levine, who abused power and is notorious for promoting transgender extremist policies, promoted mutilating surgeries for minors,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in the announcement.
“It is no wonder the Biden-Harris administration wants to cover this up with unlawful secrecy. Judicial Watch’s lawsuit to expose the truth is urgently needed to protect children.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
According to a June 24 Alabama court filing cited by Judicial Watch, Levine feared that WPATH, including age limits in its Standards of Care, could make it harder for youth to undergo things like sex-change surgeries.
