On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14168 titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (the “Order”). On January 29, 2025, Charles Ezell, the Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”), issued an implementing memorandum entitled “Initial Guidance Regarding President Trump’s Executive Order Defending Women” (the “Memorandum”). The Memorandum purports to set forth “Steps to End Federal Funding of Gender Ideology”.
On February 4, 2025, Doctors for America (“DFA”), a non-profit organization, filed a lawsuit concerning the implementation of the Order and Memorandum against OPM, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services (collectively, the “Agencies”) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, under Civil Action No. 25-322 (the “Complaint”).
DFA’s Complaint alleges that the Agencies removed a broad range of health-related data and other information used by healthcare professionals to diagnose and treat patients as well as by researchers to advance public health, including through clinical trials. The Complaint maintains that these Agencies previously maintained this information on publicly available websites for years and that the abrupt removal creates a “dangerous gap”. The Complaint posits that, because of the Memorandum, numerous agencies have removed this information and datasets in an effort to comply with the Order and Memorandum. Thus, the Complaint challenges the actions taken by the Agencies as being arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and in violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 44 U.S.C. §§ 3501 et seq., and the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 702 et seq.
As the Complaint has only recently been filed, the impact remains to be determined but should be closely followed.