Federal Government restores access to critical public health data after SF wins lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (December 22, 2025) — San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced today that federal agencies restored 195 websites containing troves of essential public health data and information after San Francisco won a lawsuit against the Federal Administration. The lawsuit successfully challenged the Federal Administration’s unlawful attempt to erase decades of valuable public health information, stemming from one of President Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive orders.

In February, San Francisco joined litigation led by Doctors for America, represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, to preserve access to essential public health data that medical professionals rely on to treat patients and that local health departments use to protect communities from infectious disease and public health threats. The websites and datasets that were removed included information used to monitor and prevent infectious disease outbreaks as well as information specific to treating conditions impacting youth, LGBTQ+ communities, and people seeking reproductive and fertility care.

In July, a federal court sided with San Francisco and Doctors for America, ordered the restoration of websites, and found that the Federal Administration violated federal law in taking them down. Federal agencies have now restored all 195 impacted websites.

“We are so pleased that as a result of our litigation, health care providers will continue to have the tools and data necessary to keep our communities healthy,” said City Attorney Chiu. “Blocking access to accurate public health information puts us all in danger and makes it harder to combat infectious diseases and public health threats. We are grateful the Court found that taking down this scientific information violates the law, and these critical websites have been restored.”

“These federal agencies exist to serve the American people by protecting public health,” said Zach Shelley, an attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group and lead counsel on the case. “By taking down important health information that physicians and other public health professionals rely on to keep all of us healthy, the government violated its mandate and the law. The court’s decision affirmed that the federal government must follow the law, just like the rest of us.”

“This victory affirms a fundamental truth: public health decisions must be guided by science, data, and medical expertise—not political ideology,” said Christine Petrin, MD, MPH, President of the Board of Directors of Doctors for America. “Physicians, researchers, and public health officials rely on these federal resources every day to care for patients and protect communities. By restoring this information, the court safeguarded the integrity of our public health infrastructure and ensured that clinicians can continue to deliver evidence-based care to everyone who needs it.”

“Knowledge is power and without data, we are less able to protect our communities from serious threats to public health,” said San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip. “Winning this lawsuit not only keeps the public informed, it enables our SFDPH team’s work to protect health locally, and enables our colleagues in health across the country to do the same, making us all safer.”

Background
On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14168, entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” In response to the Executive Order, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued an unlawful memorandum nine days later directing agencies to take down websites, social media content, and other outward facing media “that inculcate or promote gender ideology.”

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) then issued a directive, instructing HHS and agencies under its authority to remove information and data in line with the President’s anti-trans executive order and OPM’s memorandum. HHS and several of its component agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), removed numerous websites and datasets from their websites. Following the removal, the CDC posted a statement on its website declaring that the “website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.”

Health professionals regularly use the information that had been removed to treat patients, conduct research, and inform public health responses to infectious diseases and public health threats. The information and datasets cover a range of subjects including youth risk behaviors, adolescent and school health, social vulnerability and environmental justice, HIV, contraception, fertility and assisted reproductive technologies, as well as how to develop clinical trials, including to improve inclusion of women and underrepresented populations. Much of the information has been publicly available on the health agency websites for years, with some websites originating in the 1990s.

The treatment guidance and datasets that have been restored are vital resources used every day by health care providers to make real-time clinical decisions in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and emergency departments across the country. In addition to treating physicians, local health departments like San Francisco’s Department of Public Health (SFDPH) use the websites and datasets to conduct research, monitor public health threats, inform public health responses, and help operationalize on-the-ground treatment and interventions. Local health departments must rely on the expertise and reach of a national agency like CDC, which has a global view of emerging infectious diseases in other parts of the country and world.

In February, Doctors for America, represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, brought a lawsuit challenging the unlawful OPM memo, HHS directive, and removal of the websites and datasets. Plaintiffs filed a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO), which U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates granted, requiring Defendants to restore websites and datasets that were unlawfully removed from their websites. San Francisco joined the litigation later that month to bring the perspectives of local public health departments and public health officials to the effort and to combat the Trump Administration’s attempts at trans erasure.

On July 3, the Court issued an order resolving the case and finding that the OPM and HHS directives requiring the removal of the websites and datasets violated federal law and harmed health care professionals. The Order required restoration of websites that Plaintiffs rely on and vacated the OPM and HHS policies that led to the website removals. Defendants have restored websites on a rolling basis, and on December 12, Defendants filed a compliance report stating that they restored all 195 websites subject to the Order.

The case is Doctors for America v. Office of Personnel Management, et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Case No. 25-cv-322. View the compliance report.