By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) -A federal judge on Tuesday ordered U.S. health agencies to restore websites that they abruptly took offline in response to an executive order by President Donald Trump telling them to scrub websites of “gender ideology extremism.”
The temporary restraining order by U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C. came in response to a lawsuit by the left-leaning medical advocacy group Doctors for America, which said the sudden removal of websites by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration hampered doctors’ and researchers’ ability to fight disease.
Bates ordered all websites specifically identified by Doctors for America in its court filings be restored by 11:59 p.m. (0459 GMT) on Tuesday. He ordered the government to consult with the group to identify any other materials that doctors rely on and restore them by February 14.
The materials taken offline by the CDC include a page on behavioral health risks among youth, which Doctors for America says is important for understanding health challenges faced by young people, including bullying and vaping; pages with data on the prevalence of HIV and associated risky behaviors; and a page on getting tested for HIV.
The FDA removed pages recommending the inclusion of more women and underrepresented groups in clinical trials, according to the lawsuit.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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