Trump administration agrees to restore health websites and data
[September 04, 2025]
By MIKE STOBBE
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal officials have agreed to restore health- and
science-related webpages and data under to a lawsuit settlement with
doctors groups and other organizations who sued.
The settlement was announced this week by the lead plaintiffs in the
case, the Washington State Medical Association.
Soon after President Donald Trump's inauguration, federal health
officials deleted or removed information on a range of topics including
pregnancy risks, opioid-use disorder and the AIDS epidemic. The move was
made in reaction to a Trump executive order that told agencies to stop
using the term “gender” in federal policies and documents.
The administration saw it as a move to end the promotion of “gender
ideology.” Doctors, scientists and public health advocates saw it as an
"egregious example of government overreach,” says Dr. John Bramhall, the
organization’s president, said in a statement.
"This was trusted health information that vanished in a blink of an eye
— resources that, among other things, physicians rely on to manage
patients’ health conditions and overall care,” Bramhall said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to restore
more than 100 websites and resources to the state they were in, said
Graham Short, a spokesperson for the Washington State doctors’ group.

“We expect the sites will be restored in the coming weeks,” Short said
in an email.
The case was filed in federal court in Seattle. The plaintiffs include,
among others, the Vermont Medical Society, the Washington State Nurses
Association and the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care.
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President Donald Trump, left, speaks as Health and Human Services
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listens during a Make America
Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission Event in the East Room of the White
House, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn
Martin, File)
 The defendants included U.S. Health
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and federal health agencies and
officials who work under him.
Federal officials responded to questions about the settlement with
this statement: “HHS remains committed to its mission of removing
radical gender and DEI ideology from federal programs, subject to
applicable law, to ensure taxpayer dollars deliver meaningful
results for the American people.”
The case is similar to one filed in Washington, D.C., by Doctors for
America and others against the government. That lawsuit also sought
to force the government to restore health information to the public,
and the two cases overlapped somewhat in the websites they targeted,
Short said.
In July, a judge in the Doctors for America case ordered restoration
of websites. As of last week, 167 of the websites at issue had been
restored and 33 were still under review, according to a court
filing.
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