US drops case against doctor in Texas

DALLAS — Federal prosecutors dropped Friday the case against a Texas doctor who called himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors and was accused of illegally obtaining private information on patients who weren’t under his care.

Prosecutors said Dr. Eithan Haim, a 34-year-old surgeon, took the information and shared it with a conservative activist with “intent to cause malicious harm” to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

At the time, transgender care for minors was legal in Texas, but the hospital announced in 2022 that it would stop gender-affirming care. A ban in Texas on transgender care for minors went into effect in September 2023.

Haim pleaded innocent in June to four counts of wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information.

Texas Children’s said Friday in a statement they “defer to and respect” the Justice Department’s decisions in the case.