Federal prosecutors have abandoned the accusation against a surgeon in Texas, who was charged with obtaining and sharing private medical information on the treatment of genders for minors in one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country.
Surgeon, Dr. Eithan Haim, was charged with the US District Court in Houston for four numbers of false pretexts, personal medical information from the online system in the Texas Children’s Hospital last May. In 2023, he asked for access to the hospital record database, two years after he last worked there and claimed that he needed information to provide “adult care services”.
The doctor took information about the health care of the children who received services related to the transition, and published this information to the conservative activist Christopher Rufo. Mr. Rufo then published an article claiming that the hospital continues to provide transgender care to the minors after announced the termination of practice.
Dr. Haim, 34, who recognized the publication of the records, admitted that he was not guilty because he did not think he did something wrong, he said on Saturday in a telephone conversation from his suburban Dallas house. He thought of a whistle and said he had edited patient records to hide any identifiable information.
The prosecutors did not provide an explanation for the abolition of the charges and Dr. Haim said he was relieved and surprised to do so. He said he thanked President Trump, “100 percent”.
“He’s my husband,” he said.
The Children’s Hospital in Texas said in -mail statement that it would “postpone and respect” the decisions of the prosecutors announced on Friday.
The release of fees was another attack on Transgender Rights, especially in Texas, said Johnathan Gooch, a spokesman for Equality Texas, a LGBTQ lawyer group.
Over the past few years, the state has adopted transgender laws, including the one who prohibits the transgender athletes playing on sports teams of girls and women from the nursery school through college. These laws had serious consequences for the Trans community, advocacy groups say.
In countries that adopt legislation against trans-trans to the study Cited by Trevor Project, non -profit prevention of LGBTQ suicides.
“I think the whole incident with private medical exposure has seriously disrupted great confidence between LGBTQ people in Texas and their doctors, which is such an important relationship,” said Mr. Gooch. “I think it is alarming to see the implicit confirmation of anti-trans-vigilantism from the Ministry of Justice.” If it is permissible, what else is permissible? ”
In the first week of his new term, Mr. Trump moved to dismantle a lot of protection for Transgender and other LGBTQ people who were set up under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Mr. Trump ordered that government institutions only acknowledge sex, that the person was assigned at birth and that he was a man or a woman. Ordered federal agencies to forbid transgender women from “intimate spaces for one sex” jail.
The intensive debate on whether to ensure gender treatment for gender transition continues throughout the country, even in states such as Tennessee, which has adopted a prohibition of treatment now considered by the US Supreme Court. The arguments in this case were heard in December.
In Texas, sex care has been questionable for years. The state is one of at least 26 since 2021 partial or total prohibitions about the treatment of minors.
In 2023 the state of the state forbidden Doctors provide puberty blockers, hormonal therapy or temporary surgery for patients under 18 years of age. Doctors who violate that the law of the risk of losing medical licenses, and health insurance companies are forbidden to cover the costs of treatment.
Measure was confirmed Last year at the Supreme Court in Texas. And in October General Prosecutor Ken Paxton sued a pediatrician in Dallas Who he accused of providing care for gender transmission to minors in violation of the law. The case is waiting.
For Dr. Haima was a decision to escape private medical records to an activist who would publish this information easy, said, because he felt that hospitals and her doctors were harmful to children and that the public had to know.
When Dr. Haim for the first time heard that his colleagues in Texas Children’s Hospital were treated by Transgender Children, care for gender transport was legal in the state. At the beginning of 2022, however, Governor Greg Abbott ordered the State Agency for Children to investigate the care of youth transgender as “child abuse” and said that anyone who reports the case to be taken will face criminal sanctions.
Weeks later to protect itself and its patients from legal demands, the Texas Children’s Hospital announced that it would no longer provide sex care for minors.
Dr. Haim said he was now sure that Trump’s administration would prevent national care, so “the most radical operations will finally end up and these people can get the help they need to live normal lives,” he said they believe that people who They think they are a transgender, they only need care for mental health, not drugs or surgery blocking puberty.
However, the American Academy of Pediatrics states that these treatments may be necessary to treat gender dysphoria, a psychological anxiety that may occur when the body of a person does not correspond to their gender identity. The organization has ordered a review Available data and research in the field of Transgender Care to update its instructions for this practice.
The genital surgery for adolescents is extremely rare but the highest surgery has become more common For older teenagers.
After Dr. Haim accused last summer, some Republican politicians were interested in the case. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas, sent a letter Alamdar S. Hamdani, who was at that time an American lawyer for the Southern district of Texas, expressed concern that the case could be politically motivated.
Dr. Haim said he discussed the case last summer with Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican of Missouri, at a meeting of the Alliance defending freedom, conservative legal advocacy that supported the legislation against Transgender.
Regardless of the reason why the accusations were canceled against it, Dr. Haim described the development as “miracle”. If he was convicted, he would face up to 10 years in prison.
