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The Justice Department is demanding that hospitals turn over a wide range of sensitive information related to medical care for young transgender patients, including billing documents, communication with drug manufacturers and data such as patient dates of birth, Social Security numbers and addresses, according to a copy of a subpoena made public in a court filing this week. The June subpoena to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia requests emails, Zoom recordings, “every writing or record of whatever type” doctors have made, voicemails and text messages on encrypted platforms dating to January 2020 — before hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery had been banned anywhere in the United States. (Parks and Ovalle, 8/20)

Gender-affirming care will no longer be covered for federal workers in 2026, according to a letter the Trump administration sent to insurance carriers. The notice from the Office of Personnel Management informs insurers participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits or Postal Service Health Benefits programs that “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits” will no longer be covered. The announcement, dated Aug. 15, cements the administration’s expected move to halt gender-affirming care following President Donald Trump’s January executive order to enforce laws based on a person’s biological sex. (Clason, 8/19)

The Trump administration appears to be following through on its threat to withhold federal funds from public schools in Northern Virginia after they refused to roll back policies that support transgender and gender non-conforming students. The U.S. Education Department announced Tuesday that it has placed Fairfax County Public Schools and the school systems in Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William and Loudoun on “high-risk status,” a move that it claims lets it attach specific conditions for releasing funding. (Woolsey, 8/20)

Long confined to the medical fringe, “restorative reproductive medicine” has unified Christian conservatives and proponents of the Make America Healthy Again movement on the political right. (Kitchener, 8/21)