Families fight the Trump administration's effort to obtain their children’s private medical records

As the Trump administration seeks exhaustive and unprecedented access to transgender youth medical records, families are taking to court to fight back.Families in New York and California recently sued to block major hospital systems from complying with federal criminal subpoenas ordering the release of medical information around gender-affirming care for trans minors. Two separate lawsuits name NYU Langone Health in New York and Stanford Medicine Children’s Hospital in California as plaintiffs.Both hospitals were subpoenaed last month by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. Prosecutors are seeking staggering amounts of patient data, generally protected by health privacy laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). That includes patient forms, treatment histories, and internal hospital communications.Related: Trump's DOJ subpoenas doctors and medical clinics that care for transgender youthIn New York, three trans youth and two trans adults who received gender-affirming care at NYU Langone filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday to block the release of their medical records. In California, six families with children in Stanford’s gender-affirming care program sued the hospital to block it from releasing their records last week.The subpoenas met nationwide blowback from families and LGBTQ+ advocates worried about patient privacy and gender-affirming care access, especially for trans youth. The subpoenas gave the hospitals until June 10 to comply, but hospitals have widely been silent on how they plan to respond.Related: Trump-appointed judge says DOJ ‘proven unworthy’ of trust in blistering trans care case ruling Neither NYU Langone nor Stanford Medicine returned The Advocate's email requests for comment regarding their responses to the lawsuit and whether they plan to comply with the subpoenas.Both hospitals are among the many across the United States that have halted their gender-affirming care progr