After their research that addressed LGBTQ+ health concerns was removed from a US government-run website, two Harvard Medical School doctors have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration for “unlawful and dangerous suppression of doctors’ speech about how to better diagnose patients,” according to Boston.com.
Reports Boston.com:
Filed [last] Wednesday in federal District Court in Boston, the lawsuit accuses the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Office of Personal Management (OPM) of “unlawful and dangerous suppression of doctors’ speech about how to better diagnose patients.” It also argues that the government violated the Administrative Procedure Act for its “arbitrary and capricious” removal of the articles, according to the complaint.
“You don’t often get a case that is that clear, that viewpoint discrimination is what has happened, and that is one of the reasons why we’re very confident in this case,” said Rachel Davidson, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which is representing the two doctors.
The two articles were removed from the Patient Safety Network (PSNet), a government-run website where doctors and medical researchers can share information about patient safety, misdiagnoses, and medical errors.
An article about endometriosis, co-authored by plaintiff Dr. Celeste Royce, was removed because it included a sentence stating that “endometriosis can occur in trans-and non-gender conforming people and lack of understanding this fact could make diagnosis in these populations even more challenging,” the complaint said.
A second article about suicide risk assessment, co-authored by plaintiff Dr. Gordon Schiff, was removed due to the inclusion of the words “transgender” and “LGBTQ” in a list of high risk groups, according to the complaint.
Royce and Schiff were both notified last month by PSNet’s editor-in-chief that the language in the articles violated the White House policy on websites that “inculcate or promote gender ideology,” the complaint said. Both doctors rejected proposed censored versions of the articles which were altered to remove the language which the OPM deemed problematic.
“I worry about the effect of self-censorship that can happen in an environment where you may not get funding or you may not be able to publish or talk about your research,” Royce said. “I think we need to fight for those rights, for academic freedom, for freedom of speech.”
Read the complete Boston.com story here.
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