Parents deserve answers about Rhode Island Hospital’s 112,647 pages

Rhode Island Hospital has turned over 112,647 pages of records about the treatment it provides to minors to a federal court in Texas, the Brown Daily Herald reported Oct. 28, citing a court filing from the week before¹.

One hospital in the smallest state built a file of more than a hundred thousand pages¹ on what it does to children. The hospital itself told the Texas court its production timeline reflects "the volume of the data to be collected." If the care was routine and lawful, why has the hospital insisted that investigators are owed none of it? Its May 19 notice to the Texas court says the subpoena is invalid and the hospital has no legal obligation to produce documents to the government².

“unprecedented intrusion into the private medical information of children, many of whom are among the most vulnerable in our state’s care”

The subpoena reaches care dating to 2020

The Justice Department filed its administrative subpoena in July 2025, and it did not ask about one family. The Providence Journal reports that it sought information on every minor patient who received the care at the hospital from 2020 to the present³.

112,647 pages

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas said on May 18 that federal prosecutors in Fort Worth had opened a nationwide investigation into potential violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. His finding: "the Government acted pursuant to its statutory authority and is engaged in a legitimate investigation³." Six years of children's treatment is a question about the practice of a hospital, and parents are owed the answer.

A Texas judge is holding records privately

The records are not going to investigators yet. The order put the records under judicial control while appeals proceed. O’Connor faulted the hospital for producing only a six-page document since it received the subpoena in 2025³.

The hospital's own notice says the materials are to be "secured and held in camera" and kept "inaccessible to the Government for the pendency of the appeals." It also says the hospital will de-identify patient information "as agreed by the Government on the record²." Children's names are protected, a judge holds the file, and the hospital still calls the whole exercise a burden.

The First Circuit refused to block court review

Rhode Island Child Advocate Katelyn Medeiros calls the subpoena an "unprecedented intrusion into the private medical information of children, many of whom are among the most vulnerable in our state’s care³." The First Circuit refused to stop the court-supervised production, finding that Medeiros had not shown the irreparable harm required for an injunction⁴.

The court relied on the Texas judge's assurance that the documents would be held in camera and go to the Justice Department only "should the courts of appeals rule against [the Hospital]⁴."

Judge Dunlap, concurring, said the relief Medeiros wanted is "effectively a stay of the order that the Northern District of Texas court issued," a remedy to be pursued in that court or the Fifth Circuit. He also noted that the Rhode Island ruling on children's privacy "did not explain how this purported Fourteenth Amendment right limits the federal government⁴."

Parents deserve answers from children’s hospitals

When the First Circuit ruled, the hospital's appeal in the Fifth Circuit was still pending. The appeals courts should let that process finish, with the safeguards already in place: de-identified records, a judge holding them², and nothing going to the Justice Department unless the courts rule for it⁴.

Parents deserve answers from children's hospitals about what they do to minors. That scale demands scrutiny, not exemption from review.

Rhode Island Hospital should answer two questions with a yes or no. Will it complete its production to the Texas court without further delay? Will it accept the Justice Department's review of de-identified records if the appeals courts say the subpoena stands? Rhode Island officials who say they speak for these children should ask the same questions, and parents should hold them to the answers.

Sources

1. @the_herald on X, 2026-10-28: Rhode Island Hospital has turned over 112,647 pages of records relating to the gender-affirming care it provides to minors to a Texas federal court, according to a court filing from last week. https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/rhode-island-hospital-has-, 2026-10-28
2. IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
3. Texas judge orders RI Hospital to produce youth records on gender-affirming care
4. United States Court of Appeals