‘Win for nurses, science, and patients’

The federal government will be restoring public health and science data deleted from its websites, resolving a lawsuit filed in May by the Washington State Nurses Association and eight other health-related plaintiffs.

“This settlement represents a win for nurses, science and patients,” said WSNA President Justin Gill, in a recorded statement announcing the news Sept. 2. “As we said when this lawsuit was first announced, we must remain committed to standing by our values and leading with courage during chaotic times.”

The purges of webpages and other public-facing internet resources began Jan. 31, in response to executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI efforts and opposing LGBTQ+ care and research.

According to the lawsuit, more than 100 health and science datasets were wiped following two of President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive orders: “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” and “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.”

WSNA signed on to this lawsuit early on. As Justin Gill said in the May 20 press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit: “Nurses strive to provide evidence-based care. That means care that is driven by current data—but we can’t do that if the data is unavailable.”

A wide range of webpages and data had been deleted. These included FAQs for Mpox treatment, Health Resources and Services Administration information about opioid use among women, various resources on health issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community including diabetes, information related to transgender behavioral health disparities, and the Health and Human Services website dedicated to reproductive rights.

The settlement requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to recover any information it deleted from government websites since January.

“This victory shows that advocating with a sense of courage and a commitment to our core values can lead to change,” said WSNA Executive Director David Keepnews. “Moving forward we need to remain vigilant and continue to speak out as we aim to protect the communities we serve and the professionals that care for them.”

The lawsuit, Washington State Medical Association et al. v. Kennedy et al. was filed in the federal district court for the Western District of Washington. Three of the nine plaintiffs are from Washington state.

Along with WSNA, the plaintiffs include 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 LGBT Cancer Network, and the Vermont Medical Society.