Theresa Gaffney

@theresagaff.bsky.social

reporter, newsletter writer, & Guild member at STAT theresa.gaffney@statnews.com Signal: theresagaff.97 she / her

The Trump admin cut 988's LGBTQ+ youth line a year ago today. Now, officials say they're bringing it back, but with a big caveat. It seemed like a good time to talk with the Trevor Project's director of crisis intervention about what actually happens on these calls: www.statnews.com/2026/07/17/t...

Why affirming trans identities can be critical for suicide prevention counseling

Advocates worry that excluding trans youth in some way from LGBTQ+ counseling services provided through the 988 crisis line could be harmful.

statnews.com

Is Texas Children's also being forced to shut down that care for two decades? I didn't see anything in the write-ups/we do not have the settlement language for either hospital. (feel free to send settlements to rosebroderick.11 on Signal) www.texastribune.org/2026/05/15/t...

Texas Children’s Hospital to create clinic reversing trans care

Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Friday that Texas Children’s must also pay $10 million to the state because it illegally provided transgender care to kids.

texastribune.org

The latest piece in our series, "The Deadliest Drug," about preventable alcohol-related harms in the US: the continuing issue of alcohol use during pregnancy, which is more widespread than it seems, and how we're falling short on efforts to minimize its damage: www.statnews.com/2026/05/19/d...

1 in 8 women drink during pregnancy. Experts dread the consequences

More than 1 in 8 pregnant women report drinking. Doctors warn fetal alcohol disorders may be more common than many realize, perhaps more common than autism.

statnews.com

BREAKING: Judge McElroy quashes DOJ's Rhode Island Hospital subpoena in full, calling out DOJ's conduct as "misrepresent[ing] salient facts" under oath. "[T]he Court GRANTS both Motions to Quash and enjoins the DOJ from seeking or receiving any documents related to this now invalid subpoena."

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Mary S. McElroy, United States District Judge.
The United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") possesses immense
prosecutorial authority and discretion. As citizens, we trust that federal prosecutors,
when wielding this awesome power against a state, a company, or certainly against
vulnerable children, will play fair and be honest with its counterparts and the
judiciary.
DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case. It has misrepresented and withheld information to both this Court and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (the "Texas court"). It did so in an obvious effort to shield it's recent investigative tactics-previously rejected by every
other court to review them-from this Court's review, in favor of a distant forum that
DOJ deems friendly to its political positions. 1 Its representatives have, under oath,misrepresented salient facts. It has misled the parties with whom it was negotiating in Rhode Island, who have now been placed in an untenable and unprecedented procedural position. And when its attorneys came to this Court to explain their conduct, the senior attorney-who was present at many of the events that took place
in this case sat silently by as his counterpart, a junior attorney who has been
practicing law for approximately six months and had no relevant information, was forced to answer questions about DOJ's blatant disregard for the proper course of
negotiations.
Now before the Court is the petitioner, the Child Advocate for the State of Rhode Island's (the "Child Advocate") Emergency Motion to Quash a subpoena duces tecum issued by DOJ as well as Rhode Island Hospital's ("RIH") Motion to Quash the same subpoena. (ECF Nos. 1, 28.) For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS both Motions to Quash and enjoins the DOJ from seeking or receiving any documents
related to this now invalid subpoena.
Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 3mo ago

NEW: After a string of losses in its anti-trans project, DOJ turns to grand jury subpoenas in Texas. At least seven judges have blocked invasive administrative subpoenas targeting gender-affirming care for minors, so DOJ appears to be trying a new tactic. Tonight, at Law Dork:

The risk posed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus — the cause of #Covid19 — is much different these days than it was in April 2020, when we were all learning about social distancing & flattening the curve. What happened? What does it mean for us? Experts share their thoughts. www.statnews.com/2026/04/27/i...

What happened to Covid?

The thinking about what risk Covid poses — or doesn't pose — has shifted in recent years. What does it mean for you?

statnews.com

After the launch of 988, suicide deaths among adolescents and young adults dropped 11% compared to projected rates, per a new JAMA study. But there are still a lot of lingering questions about the line's funding: www.statnews.com/2026/04/22/9...

Increased calls to 988 hotline associated with a drop in suicides among young people, study finds

Suicide rates among young people dropped 11% after the U.S. launched the 988 national suicide and crisis hotline, a new study shows

statnews.com

New: I've spent months getting to know Indigo, a 25yo trans guy who loves musicals & BTS. Even though gender-affirming care is completely legal for adults, he had to make appointments with four different surgeons over two years before he was able to get top surgery.

The authors of the HHS report on trans youth health care were chosen by the Manhattan Institute's Leor Sapir. Now, a rule based on the controversial report could wipe out this care at hospitals. Parents are begging the administration not to go through with it. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Trump is about to drop a “nuclear weapon” on trans youth health care

How a report led by a right-wing pundit laid the groundwork for upending gender-affirming treatment

motherjones.com

Much of this work can be chalked up to one mom, who set out more than 20 years ago to cure her son and didn't stop amid innumerable setbacks. He is now 29, older than most people with DMD. He went on Avidity's drug two years ago. It has changed his life www.statnews.com/2026/04/08/d...

A decade ago, these drugs tore apart the FDA. Today, they might be some patients' best hope

A mother's persistence helps revive an all-but-abandoned drug class and could aid her son and thousands of others with neuromuscular conditions.

statnews.com

The Supreme Court just ruled 8-1 that a lower court should reconsider Colorado's ban on conversion therapy, an outcome that will likely lead to the ban being overturned. I wrote last year about the implications for queer people and health care regulation overall: www.statnews.com/2025/10/06/s...

How this week’s Supreme Court case on conversion therapy could impact the regulation of medicine

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a challenge to a Colorado law banning mental health practitioners from performing conversion therapy

statnews.com

In the first few months of 2026, the Trump administration has painted a dire picture: healthcare fraud is everywhere. Predators are swindling dollars out of the system and robbing vulnerable people of their care. Is that true? Let's look at the data. www.statnews.com/2026/03/27/m...

Trump administration says home care fraud is ‘rampant.’ What do the data show?

The Trump administration claims there's widespread fraud in home-based care, but officials haven't offered any evidence.

statnews.com

Breaking: A U.S. district judge in Oregon said he will vacate a declaration made late last year by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that asserted gender-affirming care for young trans people does not meet medical standards of care. www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/j...

Judge will rule against Kennedy’s declaration on gender-affirming care

A U.S. district judge said he will vacate a declaration by Kennedy that asserted gender-affirming care for young trans people does not meet medical standards of care.

statnews.com

lots of jarring statistics and heartbreaking stories I could share from this story, but this particular anecdote made me tear up when @jonathanwosen.bsky.social first shared this story with me For more details from our survey of ~1000 nih-funded researchers, read the report below

screenshot of story reading, "It wasn’t enough to save her three-person team. Sweetwyne still let go of a laboratory technician, and another left on their own. She’s had to return to the bench to help the one remaining staffer with experiments. Sweetwyne expects she’ll have to shut down the lab by the end of this year. And as a non-tenure-track researcher with 95% of her salary coming from grants, Sweetwyne said she’s at risk of losing her position at UW altogether. 

While she tries not to bring her worries home, her 6-year-old daughter has noticed. Each morning, she hands Sweetwyne a pair of coins and asks, “Is this going to be enough?” Sweetwyne always says yes, and, at the end of each day, hides the pennies and quarters around her house for the child to find again so that she doesn’t run out of change."
Jonathan Wosen@jonathanwosen.bsky.social · 5mo ago

@statnews.com conducted a national survey of NIH-funded researchers and found that, a year after Trump's return, many scientists are reeling, with some closing labs entirely. ‘This is like the Titanic,' one respondent told me. For full details, see our special report www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/n...

Multiple vaccines offer benefits beyond protecting the vaccinated individual from the disease the vaccine targets. Some protect fetuses in the womb, some protect people who are immunocompromised, some protect seniors. As vax rates fall, these benefits are threatened. www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/v...

The indirect — and sometimes surprising — benefits of vaccines

Many vaccines confer surprising knock-on, or indirect, health benefits when they have been put into widespread use.

statnews.com

idk wtf is going on, but people are misgendering me more in the last few weeks, both in person and virtually, so just to make it explicitly clear: My name is Rose. I'm a woman. I use she/her pronouns. If you don't know me, please address me as Ms. Broderick.