DOJ backs off whistleblower on illegal gender procedures for kids as new research questions benefit

Two newly published systematic reviews and meta-analyses reaffirm growing consensus that, at minimum, researchers can't tell if medical interventions help more than harm children.

Published: January 27, 2025 10:59pm

The Trump administration's quick-hit reversal of its predecessor's convictions and executive orders spread to a major prosecution Friday, dismissing the eight-month-old criminal case against the whistleblower who exposed Texas Children's Hospital's apparent violation of state law by continuing to practice so-called gender affirming care on minors.

Eithan Haim's saga, which he said started with "three heavily armed agents at my door [at] 7AM" to charge him, inspired an Oklahoma bill named after him (SB 571) to protect whistleblowers from federal retaliation.

It also fed into the broader narrative of the Biden administration weaponizing the law against critics of its favorite causes, in Haim's case the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery for gender-confused kids.

"At least until 2028, Oklahomans can breathe easily knowing we have a DOJ that will not be weaponized against us," SB 571 sponsor and Republican state senator Sen. Dusty Deevers wrote on X. "But Democrats will eventually control the DOJ again in the future and they do not appear to have de-radicalized at all after their electoral loss."

The Texas Supreme Court upheld the state ban under its own constitution last summer, soon after Haim's indictment on four felony HIPAA charges, citing the "relative nascency of both gender dysphoria and its various modes of treatment and the Legislature’s express constitutional authority to regulate the practice of medicine."

The U.S. Supreme Court will rule this term on the federal constitutionality of such state bans, with oral argument suggesting most justices will uphold them. A federal appeals court that subsequently heard a challenge to Florida's law seemed inclined to uphold it or wait until SCOTUS rules on the Tennessee law.

Two newly published systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the U.K. Royal College of Paediatrics' official journal reaffirmed a growing consensus that, at minimum, researchers cannot tell whether such medical interventions help more than harm children, which led early adopters in Europe to reverse course in recent years.

The U.K. not only banned new blocker prescriptions but frowned on so-called social transitions in schools, citing a National Health Service-commissioned review of its troubled central youth gender clinic, which has since closed, by former RCP President Hilary Cass.

Like the new studies in Archives of Disease in Childhood, the Cass review found "major gaps in the research base" for gender affirming care. Her final report and recommendations said the "rationale for early puberty suppression remains unclear" and medical treatment is not "best" for most gender-confused kids, citing regrets from young adults.

The Biden administration itself seemed divided on the treatment, with the Food and Drug Administration warning blockers were "plausibly" tied to serious side effects in girls in 2022. FOIA litigation showed the FDA knew they increased suicidality as early as 2017.

Yet then-Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine pressured an international standards-setting organization to ditch treatment age minimums, whose disclosure briefly prompted the White House to flip-flop on transgender surgeries for kids

The National Institutes of Health also hired a crusader for blockers as clinical director of child health, who had several pre-hire talks with Levine.

One of the final scandals of the Biden administration was NIH's failure to demand publication of a major taxpayer-funded study that did not find adolescent mental health improvement from gender affirming care, whose lead author admitted hiding the results for political reasons. A detransitioner later sued that practitioner, Johanna Olson-Kennedy.

Haim's case drew wide public attention. Elon Musk's X and the Christian satire site Babylon Bee's hard-news counterpart Not the Bee filed unsuccessful motions to intervene in the suit to oppose DOJ's sought gag order on Haim and unseal documents.

Days before President Trump's victory in November and without elaboration, U.S. District Judge David Hittner denied Haim's motion for all grand jury testimony and evidence relevant to the HIPAA charges, following DOJ's tacit admission it gave the grand jury false information. 

The President George W. Bush nominee told the parties to submit their "proposed trial plan" for Haim's jury trial 11 days before he approved dismissal of Haim's case with prejudice.

That means the feds "can never again come after him for blowing the whistle on the secret pediatric transgender program at Texas Children’s Hospital," the Burke Law Group, which represented Haim along with Haynes Boone and Nixon Peabody, wrote on X. 

It's a "repudiation of the weaponization of federal law enforcement and the first step in accountability for the misdeeds we have all witnessed in this case," the firm said. 

The same day Haim's case was dismissed, the Archives of Disease in Childhood published the review of puberty blockers and review of cross-sex hormones for people under age 26, studies led by the same researcher, Anna Miroshnychenko, and her McMaster University team.

They were commissioned and sponsored by the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine, which frowns on the affirmative-care approach to gender dysphoria and was reportedly banned from hosting a booth at the American Academy of Pediatrics conference, though the research team members were not paid directly by SEGM.

The first review analyzed three "comparative observational studies" comparing puberty blockers to none, which found "very low certainty evidence on the outcomes of global function [overall well-being] and depression." Another seven "before-after studies" found the same certainty on "gender dysphoria, global function, depression, and bone mineral density" (BMD).

"While originally considered fully reversible, concerns have emerged about potential long-term effects and partial irreversibility," the paper said, citing the Cass review, which has been widely ignored by American mainstream medical groups. 

The review "cannot exclude the possibility of benefit or harm," it said. "High certainty evidence from prospective cohort studies and, if ethical, RCTs [randomized controlled trials], is needed to understand the short- and long-term effects."

The second review, also based on research published in medical databases through September 2023, analyzed nine comparative observational studies with "mostly very low certainty evidence regarding gender dysphoria, global function, and depression" between hormone therapy and none. One "low certainty" study found the hormone group may have lower odds of depression.

Another 13 before-after studies also gave very low certainty evidence on the three outcomes plus BMD, while two "case series studies" gave high-certainty evidence that the "proportion of individuals with cardiovascular events 7-109 months" following therapy was 0.04. 

The team found two suicides within 24 months of receiving hormones among 315 natal males and females, and they are "very uncertain" about what role the hormones may have played. They didn't find evidence on sexual dysfunction in natal males.

Unlock unlimited access

  • No Ads Within Stories
  • No Autoplay Videos
  • VIP access to exclusive Just the News newsmaker events hosted by John Solomon and his team.
  • Support the investigative reporting and honest news presentation you've come to enjoy from Just the News.
  • Just the News Spotlight

    Support Just the News