A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily paused three agencies from modifying or removing data from their websites and ordered them to restore deleted pages related to public health. The temporary restraining order requires the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to reinstate relevant webpages by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The order will remain in place while litigation continues. Doctors for America sued the agencies and the Office of Personnel Management last week after the removal of several webpages, including guidance related to sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, and HIV. Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia heard arguments to consider a temporary restraining order on Monday and said he planned to make a decision by Tuesday. “No backend remedy could ameliorate the inability to provide all required care during an appointment time to a patient who cannot return in the future. For those reasons, DFA has established that it will suffer irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order, and that no subsequent action in their litigation will ‘correct’ his harm,” wrote Bates. During arguments, Doctors for America had emphasized the removal of the guidance had immediate consequences. They pointed to two of their board members: Stephanie Liou, a pediatrician, who needed access to these resource documents while navigating a recent local chlamydia outbreak, and Reshma Ramachandran, a family physician who relied on documents related to preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, and contraception. “Put simply, just as Dr. Liou has a time-limited ability to assist the Chlamydia outbreak, Dr. Ramachandran has a time-limited ability to treat certain patients at her clinic,” Bates wrote. Public Citizen, which is representing Doctors for America in the suit, called the temporary pause a “huge win for doctors, researchers, and patients.” HHS did not yet respond to a request for comment on whether the department plans to meet the deadline.
