Financial Democrats Accuse Republican AGs of Abusing Authority to Obtain Transgender Minor Records

Republican attorneys general in at least four states have abused their oversight authorities to demand private medical records from transgender minors and adults as part of a broader effort to restrict access to gender-affirming health care across the country, from according to a Senate Finance Committee report released Tuesday. .

Investigations launched by Attorneys General Ken Paxton of Texas, Todd Rokita of Indiana, Jonathan Skrmetti of Tennessee and Andrew Bailey of Missouri into transition-related applicants and caregivers “require a number of invasive items,” such as lists of individuals referred for care and unredacted physical and mental health records, according to a report by the committee’s Democratic majority staff.

“Framed as civil investigations that seek to determine whether there has been misuse of Medicaid funds (Tennessee) or violations of consumer protection laws (Indiana and Missouri), these campaigns investigate medical providers over the provision of medical care to transgender people,” the report states, adding that the investigations are motivated by “ideological and political objectives.”

The Hill has reached out to the GOP attorney general for comment.

The Tennessee attorney general’s office said its investigation targeted health care providers, not patients.

“Our Medicaid Civil Fraud Unit began investigating after viewing a video in which a VUMC doctor described how she manipulated billing codes to avoid insurance coverage limitations,” wrote Tennessee AG spokeswoman Amy Lannom Wilhite . “There is no political exception to our anti-fraud laws and we will continue to investigate as the evidence requires, regardless of the doctor’s ideology.”

Gender-affirming health care for transgender minors is already banned in Texas, Indiana, Tennessee and Missouri under a series of laws passed in 2023 that restrict access to puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery. Twenty other states have also severely restricted or banned treatments for minors and certain adults.

Tuesday’s report argues that the four attorneys general “went even further” than banning the care statewide, “using their oversight authorities to investigate transgender medical care in the United States.”

In February, PFLAG National, a nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy group, sued Paxton after her office demanded the organization turn over information related to its support for transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care. Paxton’s office said the request concerned allegations of “misrepresentations” of transgender health care in violation of a state law that protects against false or deceptive business practices.

Paxton is facing a similar lawsuit from Seattle Children’s Hospital, which sued the attorney general’s office in December after it received a subpoena demanding patient records of Texas residents who received gender-affirming care. Paxton in November issued a similar demand to QueerMed, a Georgia-based telemedicine clinic.

The attorneys general of Missouri and Indiana have also cited consumer protection laws to justify investigations into transgender clinics. A short-lived emergency rule issued by Bailey, the Missouri attorney general, claimed last year that gender-affirming treatments were already banned in the state under an existing law governing “unfair, deceptive and unconscionable business practices ”.

In Tennessee, the attorney general’s office sent at least three civil investigation demands to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s transgender health clinic over allegations of Medicaid fraud. TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, explicitly excludes gender-affirming health care.

“Attorneys general are weaponizing their oversight authorities for their own political gain, at the expense of LGBTQIA+ people and their families,” Tuesday’s report states. “Furthermore, by implicating the Medicaid program, a critical public insurance program for low-income Americans, these efforts undermine the integrity of public health care.”

Including Tennessee, at least 13 states prohibit the use of Medicaid for gender-affirming care.

In a statement, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the four attorneys general named in the report are “misusing their authority to terrorize transgender teenagers.”

“It is shameful that law enforcement chooses to persecute teenagers trying to live their lives, just to score points with far-right activists,” he said. Wyden also criticized Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s decision to turn over patient records to the attorney general, calling the move a “total betrayal.”

After publishing the report, Wyden and other Democrats in a letter health care industry trade groups called on hospitals and health care providers to protect patients’ private medical records from “abusive legal demands by state attorneys general.”