DOJ Drops Charges Against Surgeon Who Exposed Continuing Transgender Care at Texas Children’s
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has dropped all charges against Dr. Ethan Haim, a former surgeon at Texas Children’s Hospital who disclosed details of continuing transgender care on minors at Texas Children’s Hospital after the hospital had publicly stated that gender-affirming care for minors had stopped being provided. Haim faced multiple charges related to accessing the medical records of children who were not under his care and sharing that information with a reporter to blow the whistle on the practices. Haim maintained there was no wrongdoing, and both Haim and the reporter maintained all personally identifiable information in the shared documents had been redacted.
Haim said his decision to speak with a reporter and blow the whistle on the continuing transgender care at Texas Children’s was because he felt the practices amounted to child abuse. At the time the alleged gender-affirming care was provided at Texas Children’s there was no federal or state law prohibiting that care. State laws have since been enacted prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors in Texas.
The DOJ alleged that Haim knowingly violated HIPAA by accessing the medical records of patients under false pretenses and disclosed information to a reporter with the intent of causing malicious harm to Texas Children’s Hospital and its patients. Haim’s trial was due to commence in February 2025. If found guilty, Haim faced up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000 for the criminal HIPAA violations. Haim claimed the charges against him were politically motivated due to the Biden Administration’s “commitment to the transgender ideology.”
On the first day of his presidency, President Trump issued an executive order rolling back on the recognition of a third gender on passports established under the previous administration and an executive order “ending the weaponization of the Department of Justice.” On January 24, 2025, DOJ prosecutor, acting U.S. attorney Jennifer B. Lowery, filed a motion dismissing all open counts against Haim with prejudice. Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas signed an order dismissing the charges with prejudice, meaning the federal government is unable to file any further charges against Haim over his whistleblowing actions.
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June 18, 2024 – DOJ Unseals Criminal HIPAA Charges Against Surgeon Who Exposed Transgender Care at Texas Children’s
The Department of Justice has unsealed the indictment against Eithan Haim, MD, a surgeon turned whistleblower who shared documents with the press about gender-affirming care provided to minors at Texas Children’s Hospital. Haim has been charged with four criminal violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – illegally accessing, obtaining, and disclosing the protected health information of Texas Children’s pediatric patients.
Haim anonymously shared documents he had obtained from Texas Children’s with Christopher F. Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who published an article in the City Journal exposing the gender-affirming care being provided to minors at Texas Children’s. At the time, there was no Texas law specifically banning those treatments from being provided; however, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had issued a non-binding legal opinion in February 2022 claiming transgender treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries amounted to child abuse. State Governor Greg Abbot then ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate gender-affirming care in the state.
In March 2022, Texas Children’s publicly stated that gender-affirming services such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-changing surgeries for minors would be paused in anticipation of a Texas bill that prohibited these medical treatments for transgender minors. The reason Texas Children’s gave for pausing the care was to protect its staff from legal risk. Haim alleged that after Texas Children’s issued that statement, gender-affirming care continued to be provided to minors in secret for a year, including to individuals as young as 11.
Shortly after the story broke in May 2023, Attorney General Paxton launched an investigation into the gender-affirming care provided at the hospital. “I’ve been clear that any ‘gender transitioning’ procedures that hurt our children constitute child abuse under Texas law,” said Paxton. He said the investigation was launched following media reports suggesting Texas Children’s was “actively engaging in illegal behavior.” Texas Children’s Hospital CEO Mark Wallace later issued a statement confirming that gender-affirming care would completely stop to comply with the new law – Senate Bill 14 – which took effect in September 2023.
Federal prosecutors launched an investigation into potential criminal violations of HIPAA assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Haim was identified as the potential whistleblower and was later charged with four counts of criminal HIPAA violations; however, the indictment was sealed and the exact charges against Haim were unknown.
Haim recently claimed in an interview with Fox News that the charges were “politically motivated” and were due to the federal government’s “commitment to the transgender ideology.” Haim’s attorney, Marcella Burke, said “Our client is a mandatory reporter of child abuse who reported as a whistleblower to the State of Texas what he had seen in his hospital… It is our opinion that this is the government going out of its way to prosecute a whistleblower.”
The federal indictment was sealed, so Haim and his attorneys were kept in the dark about the charges, which they maintained could be easily disproved. According to Haim, the documents provided to Rufo had all identifying patient information redacted, suggesting there had been no impermissible disclosure of protected health information (PHI), and HIPAA permits disclosures of protected health information if the disclosures are made to prevent a serious and imminent threat to health or safety. Rufo also confirmed that all personally identifiable information had been redacted from the documents he was shown.
The indictment was unsealed ahead of Haim’s initial appearance before Magistrate Yvonne Y. Ho in Houston and confirmed that the charges against Haim relate not only to the disclosure of patient information to Rufo but also to how Haim obtained that information. Haim was a resident at Baylor College of Medicine and had previous rotations at Texas Children’s Hospital as part of his residency. Haim was provided with access to medical records; however, due to periods of inactivity, Haim’s access had been revoked. In April 2023, Haim is alleged to have requested that his login access at Texas Children’s be re-activated in order to access the records of pediatric patients not under his care. According to the indictment, Haim sent follow-up emails claiming urgency for adult care services anticipated to be under his care.
After his access was restored, the federal prosecutors claim that Haim did not treat or access the information of any adult care patients and on or around April 24, 2023, Haim’s login activity showed that he accessed the records of pediatric patients not under his care. According to the indictment, “On or about April 26, 2023, Haim requested remote access so he could discreetly [and] covertly access pediatric patient files for patients that were not under his care from Baylor and remotely rather than at [Texas Children’s] where his search would be more visible to other physicians.”
Haim is alleged not to have raised concerns with Baylor or Texas Children’s about the gender-affirming care being provided to minors, nor did he use the anonymous hotline provided by Baylor, as specified in his HIPAA training. Instead, he chose to voice his concerns with his media contact and disclosed documents containing patient data as evidence.
The disclosure is alleged to have caused financial harm to Texas Children’s Hospital, resulted in medical delays to previously scheduled patients, and threats and harm to patients and physicians. According to the indictment, “Haim obtained unauthorized HIPAA-protected information and intentionally contacted a media outlet to grossly mischaracterize [Texas Children’s] medical procedures in order to damage the reputation of [Texas Children’s] and its physicians and to promote his own personal agenda.”
From September 2022 to February 2024, Haim is alleged to have violated HIPAA by knowingly and without authorization obtaining individually identifiable health information of patients under false pretenses (Count 1). Counts 2-4 relate to obtaining and/or wrongfully disclosing individually identifiable health information with intent to cause malicious harm to Texas Children’s Hospital physicians and patients, with one count for each of the three patients involved. If found guilty of criminal HIPAA violations, Haim faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
