More than a year after trying to force University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to hand over the records of youth receiving transgender healthcare, the U.S. Department of Justice has abandoned its efforts, withdrawing its motion earlier this week.
The hospital network and insurance provider, which is the largest nongovernment employer in Pennsylvania, was one of more than 20 doctors and clinics the federal government attempted to subpoena in an effort to gather the records of youth receiving gender affirming care last summer, according to a release from the DOJ.
After parents and families challenged the order in court, with a federal district court ruling in their favor late last year, the DOJ withdrew its appeal.
"The children we represented, their
families, and all minor patients from UPMC’s gender-affirming care clinic can now rest easy that their personal information will not be exposed to a hostile administration," said Mimi McKenzie, legal director of the Public Interest Law Center. "That’s a win for patients. But it came with a great cost. They faced the possibility of harassment from the federal government and the fear that their private healthcare records would be in the hands of people who think that transgender and nonbinary people shouldn’t exist."
Here's what to know about where things stand.
Department of Justice won't force UPMC to release medical records of trans youth. Why?
The Department of Justice's motion withdrawing its appeal seeking the medical records of youth receiving gender affirming care at UPMC, filed Aug. 10, didn't give a reason for the move.
Attorneys at Public Interest Law Center and Ballard Spahr LLP representing patients and families at UPMC warned in an Aug. 10 press release that the Trump administration has reached settlements with healthcare providers in other states that have required providers to end gender affirming care or create clinics for patients to detransition.
Most recently, in June, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio settled with the DOJ, pledging $2 million to provide care for people to detransition after receiving gender affirming care as minors, The Hill reported. The Cleveland Clinic also agreed that it would not perform or offer gender affirming care for minors for the next 20 years, though hospitals are already banned from providing gender affirming care to minors under state law.
Why was the Department of Justice attempting to force UPMC to hand over medical records of trans youth?
In July 2025, the DOJ attempted to subpoena more than 20 doctors and clinics for the records of minors who had received gender affirming care, according the department's release. It was an effort, the department said, to investigate "healthcare fraud, false statements and more."
"Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice," said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.
UPMC was subpoenaed for the medical records of youth who had received gender affirming care since 2020, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, a move that was blocked in December by U.S. Chief District Judge Cathy Bissoon.
While the DOJ said it would accept anonymized patient information, Bissoon rejected the argument in March.
Medical gender affirming care for minors can involve medication to delay or suppress puberty, also known as "puberty blockers," or hormone therapy, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Before legal battle, UPMC ended gender affirming care for trans youth
UPMC stopped offering gender affirming services to patients under the age of 19 on June 30, 2025, prior to the Department of Justice subpoenaing patient data, according to ACLU Pennsylvania.
At the start of the year, soon after he took office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on gender affirming care for youth, which asserted that "medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end."
The order directed the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to work to end gender affirming care for children and ordered government agencies to significantly limit youth access to gender affirming care throughout the country, though it did not ban medical providers from offering that care.
Within a little more than a week after the executive order was issued, attorneys general 15 states said they opposed the order in a coalition led by the Massachusetts attorney general, with multiple attorneys issuing directives to continue providing care, KFF reported. Virginia's attorney general told at least two university hospital systems to stop providing care to minimize legal and financial risk.
UPMC still offers gender affirming hormone therapy for patients age 19 or older, according to its website.
Finch Walker is the Pittsburgh Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Contact Walker at FWalker@usatodayco.com. Instagram: @finchwalker_. X: @_finchwalker.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Department of Justice stops pursuit of trans youth records at UPMC
