A federal judge has ordered U.S. health agencies to restore webpages and datasets that were removed in response to Trump’s executive order restricting references to gender in federal policies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reinstated multiple resources Tuesday night following the court’s ruling.
Among the restored materials are CDC pages on adolescent health, HIV monitoring and testing, contraception guidance, and the impact of pollution and poverty on communities. The FDA also brought back recommendations on increasing female enrollment in clinical trials and ensuring sex-specific data is properly analyzed in medical product approvals.
The removals stemmed from Trump’s January 20 executive order, signed on his first day back in office, which required agencies to use “sex” instead of “gender” in policies and eliminate content promoting what his administration labeled as “gender ideology.” This led to widespread takedowns across government websites, sparking backlash from public health experts and advocacy groups.
Doctors for America, represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group, sued the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the CDC, the FDA, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), arguing that the removals restricted critical health information. In response, U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled Tuesday that the government must restore access to several missing pages and datasets and provide an explanation for any additional takedowns.
Although federal officials confirmed that the CDC pages were restored to their January 30 state, some links remained broken as of Wednesday morning, suggesting the process is still ongoing.
