Widespread media coverage on federal lawsuit
This story appears in the June 2025 edition of The Washington Nurse.
The Washington State Nurses Association joined a coalition suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for deleting vital health information contained in federal websites and databases.
The lawsuit was filed May 20 in the federal district court for the Western District of Washington. Three of the nine plaintiffs are from Washington state.
Several media organizations covered the news. The news was covered by three TV stations (KING-TV, KHQ-TV, KNDO-TV), multiple airings on radio through NPR and KUOW, six newspapers (Seattle Times, Tacoma News Tribune, The Columbian, Tri-City Herald, Bellingham Herald, The Olympian, and Healthcare Innovation).
Nurse.org also ran the joint release.
Thousands of federal websites and databases were deleted after the president issued two executive orders targeting DEI and trans care.
Pages containing words like “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion” or, in some cases, references to gender or gender-based care, were included in the scrub.
The plaintiffs include WSNA, Washington State Medical Association, Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, AcademyHealth, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Fast-Track Cities Institute, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, National LGBTQ Cancer Network, and Vermont Medical Society.