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Back in January, Blaze News shared the story of Dr. Eithan Haim, a 33-year-old, board-eligible general surgeon who publicly revealed that transgender-related medical interventions continued at Texas Children's Hospital, even after its leaders claimed they had been put on "pause." Dr. Haim now faces four federal charges in connection with his exposure of Texas Children's, and Blaze News spoke with him to learn more details about his recent interaction with armed federal agents and his unwavering desire to see the truth prevail.
'Ethically evolving standards': Haim's history with Texas Children's
From 2018 until 2023, Dr. Haim worked as a surgical resident at several Houston-area hospitals, including Texas Children's. At that time, the public outcry against gender-related medical interventions on kids — such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical genital mutilation — grew louder and louder, and executives at Texas Children's issued a statement in March 2022, claiming that all such interventions there had been brought to a halt.
In the statement, executives expressed no concern about the potentially irreparable harm the hospital may have inflicted on its minor patients. In fact, the statement even unequivocally insisted that children can be "transgender." However, the statement did express concern about possible legal retribution against the hospital and its staff.
'We will continue to offer ... any form of care we can within the bounds of the law.'
"Texas Children’s Hospital paused hormone-related prescription therapies for gender-affirming services ... to safeguard our healthcare professionals and impacted families from potential criminal legal ramifications," it said (emphasis added).
Despite this statement suggesting the "hormone-related ... gender-affirming services" had stopped at Texas Children's, Dr. Haim discovered that they continued apace. In January 2023, nearly a year after the hospital issued the statement, the hospital hosted meetings and virtual conferences during which the gender clinic was openly discussed and medical professionals admitted they still screened minor patients for possible transgender interventions "behind their parents' back," Haim previously told Blaze News.
In May 2023, Haim exposed the continuing trans-related interventions through an article published in the City Journal. Within days, the Texas Senate passed SB 14, which banned transgender surgeries on minors, and Texas Children's CEO Mark Wallace promised to close the transgender program for good on September 1.
"We will work with patients and their families to manage the discontinuation of hormone therapies or source appropriate care outside of Texas. We will continue to offer psychosocial support and any form of care we can within the bounds of the law," Wallace wrote.
As Dr. Haim no longer works at Texas Children's, he could not definitively state whether the trans-related program there is still in operation, but he believes it is now finally defunct.
The hospital does still have a Gender Medicine Program, alternatively called the Disorders of Sexual Development division. This division includes a team of "multidisciplinary experts" who can "offer management of disorders of sexual development and respond to ethically evolving standards," its website says.
Those "multidisciplinary experts" include pediatric gynecologists. One such gynecologist offers adolescents "contraceptive counseling" and pledges to make her patients "feel comfortable, understood, and respected during their visit."
Screenshot of texaschildrens.org taken on June 7, 2024
The hospital did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.
'I'm the one being investigated': Haim threatened with prosecution
Since Haim first came forward about the continuing trans-related interventions at Texas Children's, he has been on the radar of federal prosecutors operating under the purview of the Biden administration.
Last summer, on the same day that Haim was set to graduate from his residency program, two agents with the Department of Health and Human Services showed up at his home unexpectedly. They came to inform Haim that he was "a potential target for a criminal investigation," he previously told Blaze News.
"Within 24 hours of the story's release, what we had exposed was voted to become illegal, and I'm the one being investigated," he added with bewilderment.
After that day, the feds kept in semi-regular contact with Haim, especially after Haim's attorney wrote a letter to Congress in late January. The letter elucidated several examples of alleged misconduct on the part of federal prosecutors, who even reportedly threatened Haim's wife, who works with a Texas division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Feds return — this time, 'heavily armed' and carrying court summons
This week, more than a year after genital mutilation procedures on children were officially outlawed in Texas, the feds made good on their threats of charges against Haim.
'There was a reason they did it like this.'
Early Tuesday morning, Haim and his wife, who is currently expecting the couple's first child, were not surprised to receive a knock on the door since they had previously scheduled an appointment with an electrician. But when Haim opened the door, he didn't see an electrician standing on his porch.
Instead, a team of "heavily armed" U.S. Marshals wearing "body armor" stood before him, he claimed. Despite the show of raw power, the agents simply confirmed Haim's identity, handed him some papers, and left. The entire process took only "a few minutes," he told Blaze News.
Haim confirmed that agents did not call ahead of time and did not forewarn his attorneys about the pending charges. Nor did they search the premises or place Haim under arrest.
Instead, the unannounced appearance and the melodramatic tactical gear seem to have been an attempt to intimidate Haim and his family. "There was a reason they did it like this," he said.
Those efforts did not work in the short-term. After briefly speaking with his attorneys, Haim still went to work that day and performed surgeries as scheduled. "It was not difficult or challenging to kind of refocus and get back to work," he claimed.
"When you're taking care of the patients, nothing else matters."
'Carefully redacted': Alleged HIPPA violations
The papers Haim received that day summoned him to court in connection with an indictment for four felony charges, but they otherwise provided very little information. Haim told Blaze News that he has a hearing in the next few weeks to find "what exactly" he has been charged with.
The City Journal reported that the charges relate to alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, better known by its abbreviation, HIPPA. HIPPA prohibits the unauthorized release of private medical information.
Federal prosecutors seem to believe that Haim illegally released private information regarding patients at Texas Children's, though at least one key potential witness denies that Haim did any such thing. Christopher Rufo, the anti-woke crusader with the City Journal who initially shared Haim's whistleblowing story with the world last year, claimed that none of the materials Haim shared with him "identified any individual." "All the documents were, in fact, carefully redacted," Rufo reiterated.
Haim also reiterated to Blaze News that the agents conducting the investigation into him work for the FBI, not the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees HIPPA. However, Mark Lytle, an attorney representing Haim, claimed that it was not unusual for FBI agents to be involved in a case such as Haim's.
Lytle also provided the following statement regarding the charges against Haim:
Dr. Haim blew the whistle against a hospital that proclaimed it had stopped performing gender-changing surgeries and treatments on minors, when, in fact, it had not. These surgeries are a violation of Texas law. Dr. Haim was brave in coming forward. Now the federal government is coming after him. He will strongly defend himself at trial and we expect he will be found not guilty.
A different attorney representing Haim, Marcella Burke, likewise told City Journal that Haim will eventually be vindicated.
'Stick by the truth': Haim remains undeterred
Even with the heavy hand of the federal government reaching for him, Dr. Haim expressed to Blaze News unwavering confidence that he did the right thing in exposing the truth regarding Texas Children's previously ongoing transgender program. He also seems unintimidated by the apparent attempts to keep him quiet.
"All we have to do is tell the truth," he repeatedly told us.
"If you just stick by the truth ... [then] no matter the outcome of the case, I win," he claimed. "Because there are things worse than what's on the table, and the worst possible thing is to dishonor yourself and dishonor the truth."
"It was the hospital that was lying to the public about a program that manipulates, mutilates, and sterilizes kids," he reiterated.
"We have to not be intimidated by the ruthless tactics from this government."
He repeatedly told Blaze News that he's determined to stand for the truth in hopes of making a better world for future generations. "If we don't do this now, then what kind of world are we delivering our children into?"
'Targeting a brave man': Blaze Media team members stand with Haim
Haim certainly enjoys strong support from the team at Blaze Media.
Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson shares Haim's disgust with the federal government's agenda regarding so-called "gender-affirming care" for children:
[Haim's case] amounts to an indirect attack by the federal government on Texans and our Governor Greg Abbott, who has wisely sought to ensure that our hospitals are not involved in the genital mutilation and chemical castration of children. The federal government is retaliating by targeting a brave man who revealed that our hospitals have been lying to us and performing these horrific procedures anyway, in cowardly hidden rebellion against our Governor. The fact that the Department of Justice is abusing its power to persecute Dr. Haim is not surprising these days, but it must not be tolerated or accepted.
Investigative reporter Steve Baker, who currently faces federal misdemeanor charges for simply exercising his First Amendment rights to cover the events of Jan. 6 as an independent journalist, understands firsthand the power of the federal government and its seemingly endless resources to root out those who disrupt the preferred narrative. "Haim's work is legal. My work is legal," Baker said. "They can't charge us for doing our jobs, so they have to go find something else."
Blaze Media digital strategist Logan Hall is likewise outraged and claims the charges against Haim bode ill for supporters of freedom everywhere. "What's happened to Dr. Eithan Haim should be a wake up call for every American about what we're up against in 2024," he said.
Those interested in donating to Haim's legal defense may do so by clicking here.
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