A healthcare activist argues the agency has violated his First Amendment rights by refusing to make available its data on child sex-change interventions.
A new lawsuit is accusing Oregon’s healthcare agency of illegally withholding state healthcare data on child sex changes based on false pretenses.
Lifelong Democrat and longtime healthcare activist Paul Terdal filed a lawsuit against the Oregon Health Authority earlier this month for refusing to make available its data on child sex-change interventions in violation of his First Amendment rights.
“The Oregon Health Authority refuses to give me health data that’s supposed to be public and that it has widely shared with others before. The reason for its sudden change, according to the available evidence, is that these officials don’t agree with statements I have made to the press and legislators about the prevalence and efficacy of aggressive gender treatments for children – treatments that the Authority’s own experts say is lacking in evidence,” Terdal said in a statement provided to NR.
“Oregon’s officials don’t have to agree with me, but they simply cannot use the power of the state to punish me or to deny me information that will help Oregonians make up their own minds. While I continue to hope that the Authority releases these records, its denial violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, and this lawsuit was necessary to vindicate my rights.”
The Oregon Health Authority declined to comment on pending litigation.
OHA is deciding not to release its data because of purported HIPAA violations, which Terdal’s lawsuit considers a pretext because of the agency’s prior disclosures over the past 15 years. The agency has never reported a HIPAA violation or faced the legal consequences of what it now claims to be HIPAA issues with its own database. Instead, Terdal’s lawsuit argues it is a pretext for viewpoint discrimination because of his position on Oregon’s approach to transgender medical operations.
The OHA maintains healthcare data as part of its All Payer All Claims database meant to provide healthcare consumers with transparency and readily available information. State law requires Oregon to release data and the OHA has complied with data requests many times since the database was created.
“Concerned citizens shouldn’t be stymied when trying to access legally permissible information. This is particularly true when seeking data to understand the breadth and impact of life-changing sex trait modifications in children. Withholding information for political purposes only weaponizes the trust given to state agencies, particularly those tasked with overseeing public health,” said Dr. Kurt Miceli, medical director of Do No Harm, a medical watchdog group where Terdal is a visiting fellow.
“The Oregon Health Authority should make the requested data available; the truth should not be hidden. Oregonians have a right to understand the impact of these irreversible procedures on the children within their state.”
Four years ago, Terdal’s consulting company obtained healthcare data from the OHA to research Medicaid coverage. He later used the data to better understand the children and adults receiving hormonal and surgical treatments for gender-identity disorders.
Last year, Terdal began pushing the Oregon Health Authority to reverse its extremely permissive standard of care for patients experiencing gender dysphoria. He cited the OHA data in media and public statements, including in a piece Terdal wrote for National Review in March.
The leading activist group in favor of transgender surgeries for mentally distressed minors, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), inspired Oregon’s guidelines. WPATH’s advocacy was discredited last year when internal documents were released showing the group privately knew children could not fully consent to transgender medical procedures, contradicting its public stance. In December 2024, the Lund Report published an expose detailing how Oregon’s health authority dismissed concerns from the state’s experts about its approach to transgender procedures and the endorsement of WPATH’s guidelines.
Terdal is seeking a declaration from a judge that the Oregon Health Authority is violating the First Amendment by withholding the data and and an injunction prohibiting the agency from continuing to withhold the data. He is also demanding compensatory and punitive damages.