By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, May 20 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court has declined to block a Rhode Island hospital from turning over medical records to a Texas judge that the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking as part of a Trump administration probe into the provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth.

A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late on Tuesday rejected a request by the Rhode Island official charged with advocating for children in state care to bar Rhode Island Hospital from handing the records over to U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor after he ordered it to do so.

The panel said Rhode Island Child Advocate Katelyn Medeiros had not shown her agency would irreparably suffer if the hospital gave the records to a judge, "particularly one that has assured the parties that the records will not be disseminated unless and until the parties' appeals are resolved."

Medeiros had asked the 1st Circuit to intervene on an emergency basis after O'Connor ordered the hospital to provide him the records so he could secure them after previously ordering the Brown University Health-run institution to comply with a Justice Department subpoena.

Medeiros and her lawyers at groups including Democracy Forward and the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island in a joint statement said they were disappointed but "this decision is not the end of our fight to protect Rhode Island children’s medical privacy."

A Justice Department spokesperson in a statement said it "will use every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of 'care.'"

The hospital did not respond to a request for comment.

The hospital received the records subpoena in July, the same month the Justice Department announced it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in providing transgender health care to children.

President Donald Trump last year signed an executive order ending all federal funding or support for gender-affirming care for transgender youth, describing it as a "dangerous trend." He directed the Justice Department to prioritize investigations of such treatments, which LGBT rights advocates and major medical groups support as important for the well-being of transgender youth.

The Justice Department says its nationwide investigation is examining potential offenses under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in connection with the provision of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors.

But numerous judges have quashed its subpoenas, with several saying the Justice Department was misusing them to harass healthcare providers and fulfill Trump's broader goal of forcing them to cease such ⁠treatments.

Following those rulings, the Justice Department declared that its probes were now being run out of northern Texas, a venue favored by conservative litigants, and filed a lawsuit against Rhode Island Hospital on April 30 before O'Connor, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush.

When O'Connor at the Justice Department's request ordered the hospital to comply with its subpoena, Medeiros sued in federal court in Rhode Island to quash the subpoena, leading U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence to issue a dueling ruling on May 13 blocking the department from receiving records pursuant to the subpoena.

Both O'Connor's and McElroy's rulings are now on appeal. The hospital late on Tuesday produced an initial batch of records, according to court records, which O'Connor said will be kept in a court safe.

The case is In Re: Motion to Quash Administrative Subpoena to Rhode Island Hospital, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 26-1568.

For the Child Advocate for the State of Rhode Island: Paul Wolfson of Democracy Forward, Amy Romero of Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, and Lynette Labinger of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island

For the United States: Sarah Welch, John Bailey and Brantley Mayers of the U.S. Department of Justice

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