(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for all records of communications of Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine regarding pressure put on an international group of medical experts to remove age limit guidelines on transgender procedures (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:24-cv-02588)).
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after Health and Human Services failed to respond to a July 3, 2024, FOIA request for:
All records of communications sent to and from HHS assistant secretary Rachel Levine regarding the removal of minimum ages for the treatment of children in the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) 2022 standards of care. This includes but is not limited to communications with wpath, Walter Bouman, the World Health Organization (“WHO”), Dr. Jason Rafferty, Chase Strangio, Sarah Boateng, Amy Tishelman, and Dr. Eli Coleman. A reasonable search should include, but not be limited to, the search terms “2022 standards of care,” “SOC-8,” “minimum age,” “transgender care,” and “WPATH.”