INDIANAPOLIS — Two Indianapolis hospitals and a Goshen clinic will be forced to further answer civil demands on healthcare provided to transgender Hoosier minors, a judge has ruled.
Marion Superior Judge Gary Miller on Wednesday denied the motion to quash sought by Indiana University Health, Eskenazi Health, and Mosaic Health and Healing Arts. He heard arguments in the case on October 31.
The documents in the case were all filed under seal. The demands themselves were released to the Indiana Capital Chronicle on Monday. The civil investigative demands — which are similar to a subpoena — are the same for all three entities and were sent on July 11.
They say the Attorney General’s Office is conducting an investigation to determine whether the three healthcare providers are “misrepresenting and/or failing to disclose medical risks associated with prescribed treatments for gender dysphoria in minor Indiana consumers.”
In March, as legislators wrestled with a proposed ban on health care for transgender youth Rokita sent letters to several Indiana facilities demanding more information.
Lawmakers eventually passed a ban — a defeat for parental rights — but an order from a federal judge struck the majority of the ban down, leaving only the prohibition on surgical interventions for minors. Providers said such procedures didn’t occur and lengthy committee testimony failed to produce any Hoosier minors who obtained surgical care.
Just three providers responded to Rokita’s initial letter, prompting his office to pursue legal action in the form of civil investigative demands in July — the topic of the recent court filing.
Attorneys for the providers argued that much of the information sought was already available in a separate constitutional challenge of the new law. In K.C. vs. The Individual Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, a handful of transgender minors challenged a state ban on gender-affirming care in federal court.
IU Health, Eskenazi Health, and final plaintiff Mosaic Health and Healing Arts are all part of the K.C. court case, as some of the few healthcare providers to oversee gender-affirming care in the state. That case has open discovery until March 2024, as shared in the hearing.
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