Tong, Trump clash over patient privacy, transgender youth

CT Examiner – Thursday, August 14, 2025
By Francisco Uranga

Access to patient and social welfare records is the latest battleground between the Trump administration and a multi-state coalition of state attorneys general which includes Connecticut Attorney General William Tong.

Efforts by the administration to use medical and social welfare data have already spurred Yale-New Haven Hospital to interrupt gender-affirming treatment for patients under 19 years old, just weeks after the federal government subpoenaed clinics and doctors who performed those procedures.

But on Wednesday, the coalition of attorneys general scored a victory in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which blocked the Department of Homeland Security’s access to Medicaid data obtained from plaintiff states for immigration enforcement.

The court imposed a 14-day injunction, which is the deadline for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and DHS to justify why this use of patient data does not violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which prohibits arbitrary and capricious rulemaking.

“Donald Trump does not need your private medical records to secure the border. ICE does not need your immunization records, your cancer diagnosis, your prescriptions or your weight,” Tong said in a press release. “This rushed and sloppy plan was about one thing—bullying immigrant families away from seeking healthcare. And that makes all of us less healthy and less safe.”

The case, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and joined by 20 states, is one of a series of legal actions Tong has joined this year to prevent the administration from accessing such records.

Since February, attorneys general have filed various lawsuits to block the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing confidential information, including bank records and Social Security numbers; to prevent medical data from being shared with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has ordered states to hand over the personal records of millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries.

The latest lawsuit filed in early August by Tong, along with attorneys general from 15 states and the governor of Pennsylvania, targeted the federal government for attempts to restrict access to treatment for transgender, intersex and non-binary youth.

Treatment for transgender youth

In January, Trump signed an executive order stating that the federal government would not fund, support or promote gender-affirming care for young people under the age of 19, including hormone treatments and surgery. The administration moved to cut off federal funding from medical institutions that continue to provide these treatments.

And in early July, the U.S. Justice Department issued more than 20 subpoenas to clinics and doctors performing transgender medical procedures on young people.

A few weeks later, Yale-New Haven Hospital announced that it would no longer provide gender-affirming medication treatments for patients under 19. Among the arguments for its decision, it stated that it was responding to an “assessment of the current environment,” citing federal policies.

Dana Marnane, director of public relations and communications at Yale-New Haven Health, declined repeated requests for comment on further details about the reasons for the decision and on the organization’s policies regarding sharing patient data with federal agencies.

Mallory Sanchez, a Center for Children’s Defense staff attorney, criticized federal policies as a risk to transgender youth’s health.

“Health care for transgender people saves young people’s lives. Research shows that evidence-based health care improves mental health outcomes and reduces suicide and depression,” Sánchez said. “Losing access to health care adds to the overall climate of fear that trans youth experience and makes them less likely to seek help when they need it.”

Sanchez said that while she understood that the federal government’s actions were aimed at medical institutions, she knew that patients were concerned about the legal implications for them.

All medical institutions in Connecticut must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which establishes protections for personal health data but also mandates that medical institutions must provide information in response to judicial or administrative orders in valid legal proceedings.

Connie, the non-profit organization that runs the Connecticut Health Information Exchange, must also comply with HIPAA. A spokesperson for Connie told CT Examiner by email that if they receive a request for information from a government agency outside the state, the first thing they do is notify the relevant healthcare provider in writing. Connie said it could coordinate with the provider to evaluate the request and see if it is appropriate or should be opposed.

Sharona Hoffman, a professor in the Department of Bioethics at Western Reserve University in Ohio, said subpoenas are a legal procedure, but that there were safeguards for patients.

Hoffman said that healthcare providers should not disclose information unless the requesters have already contacted the targeted patients and have been given an opportunity to object or, if not, they can seek a protective order from the court.

“In the subpoena, they have to explain exactly what they are looking for. Healthcare providers also have an obligation to disclose only the minimum necessary to comply with the subpoena specifics,” Hoffman said. “The investigation has to be specific to some information that is medical and relevant to the investigation. Immigration is not something that they should be asking doctors about.“

A healthcare provider can refuse to respond under HIPAA criteria without penalty, but the Justice Department can appeal to the court.

When asked about Trump’s policies regarding gender-affirming care by CT Examiner, Tong called them a ”disturbing intrusion of partisan politics” into people’s private lives.

“This is the next ugly front in the ongoing war on American patients, doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers,” Tong said. “This is about scaring patients from seeking care and scaring doctors from providing care, regardless of who is harmed and the lives that will be lost.”

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