Vanderbilt University Medical Center was criticized by commission chair Ron Wyden for its “utter treachery” of trans patients.
A statement from the Senate Finance Committee, which was released on Tuesday, details how Democratic attorneys general from various states abused their legal standing to obtain transgender people’s secret health records inside and outside of their jurisdictions.
The document specifically describes how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti used their legal oversight powers to advance political and ideological goals relating to the limitations on transgender rights in their particular states.
The document details how 24 states in the U.S. have, in recent years, “banned best-practice health care for transgender children,” ranging from services relating to emotional health, hormone treatment, and, in rare cases, medical care when needed. According to the record, these bans have seriously affected LGBTQ people, and these attorneys general’s actions have also contributed to the harm.
“The spread of Attorney General studies that single out LGBTQIA+ citizens, especially in states with LGBTQIA+-hostile political and social regions, further harms this excluded people,” the report states.
The report also identifies the specific attorneys general who were targeted by these cases, as well as how various hospitals across the nation responded to their actions, with some repressing and others displaying little to no weight.
Washington University School of Medicine, located in St. Louis, Missouri, for example, refused to share records with AG Bailey in 2023, citing concerns about patients’ privacy and the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Additionally, Seattle Children’s Hospital refused to comply with Texas AG Paxton’s subpoena requests for information of transgender children receiving care in Washington. The doctor filed a complaint within Texas’s court system to prevent Paxton’s attempt in December of last year, and the case is ongoing.
However, Tennessee-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) didn’t imagine at all to AG Skrmetti’s request for information regarding trans people. In fact, VUMC provided Skrmetti with roughly 65,000 pages of documents relating to the care of the hospital over the course of seven months (from late 2022 to mid-2023), which included the medical records of 82 transgender patients it had served. These people weren’t informed until the end of that timeframe, in June 2023, that their records were being shared.
“When news of the VUMC investigation became public, many patients suffered from suicidal ideation, severe depression, and intense anxiety,” the report points out, noting that those affected by the attorney general’s actions “continue to experience these serious, negative mental health impacts today.”
Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) blasted the attorneys general for the breach of transgender patients’ private records, particularly those of trans children:
A few red-state attorneys general are using their power to harass transgender teenagers in their states, violating the privacy of their patients, and causing actual harm to vulnerable children and adults in the process. It is blatant that law enforcement chooses to prosecute teenagers who are trying to live their lives only to benefit far-right protesters.
Wyden also chastised hospitals like VUMC for failing “to protect their patients’ privacy,” describing the actions as being “an utter betrayal of a medical provider’s responsibility.”
