A federal judge has ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to temporarily restore the pages it has taken down from its website to comply with President Trump’s executive order barring any references to race, gender identity or sexual orientation.
Judge John D. Bates of the D.C. Federal District Court issued the temporary restraining order at the request of a left-leaning advocacy group, Doctors for America, saying the deletions put “everyday Americans and most acutely, underprivileged Americans” in jeopardy.
The order requires the sites to be restored while the case against the pages’ removal is being considered. Spokesmen for both the C.D.C. and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services agency, declined to comment.
The pages the C.D.C. took down included information from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a nationwide survey that has tracked high school students’ behaviors since 1990.
As of 6 p.m. Thursday, the site’s “explorer” function, which allows users to examine the data, including by race and gender, had not been restored. But a page about “transgender and diverse persons” was functioning.
At a court hearing Monday, doctors complained that guidance for treating specific diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases, also went missing.
Zach Shelley, a lawyer for the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, which is representing Doctors for America in the case, said the removal meant that one of his clients was unable to respond to an outbreak of the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia. In an emailed statement, he called the judge’s order “an important victory for doctors, patients, and the public health of the whole country.”
In issuing his order, Judge Bates cited complaints from doctors who said that the materials lost were “more than academic references — they are vital for real-time clinical decision-making.”
