Doctor prosecuted for leaking records of minors’ transgender treatments

The Department of Justice this week unsealed its case against Texas doctor Eithan Haim for allegedly leaking the medical records of minors who underwent transgender treatments. Haim faces charges of obtaining protected individual health information for patients not under his care and without authorization. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 maximum fine, according to a news release from the DOJ. 

Haim pleaded not guilty in federal court Monday. He has described himself as a whistleblower.

What did Haim expose? In a January article in City Journal, Haim said he released records to show that Texas Children’s Hospital, or TCH, persisted in offering procedures and interventions for the so-called gender transition of minors. The hospital had announced a pause in such treatment in March 2022. Haim had worked as a resident at the hospital, according to the DOJ.

Was this an isolated event? TCH announced its pause in transgender treatments after Gov. Greg Abbott’s February 2022 order to the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate claims of sex-change procedures for minors. Abbott’s letter cited Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s judgment that some of the procedures were abusive toward children under Texas law.

Journalist Christopher F. Rufo’s report about the leaked records was published in May 2023. In June 2023, Abbot signed legislation prohibiting physicians in Texas from offering procedures and interventions aimed at the so-called gender transition of minors.

What happens now? Haim was indicted on four counts. The first alleges that he knowingly accessed individually identifiable medical data without authorization and under false pretenses.

The other three counts alleged that Haim obtained and released health data without authorization. The DOJ alleges that the actions were taken with malicious intent toward the physicians and patients of TCH.

“I knew that it was my moral responsibility to expose what was happening to these children,” Haim said in his January article in City Journal.