The CDC sign is located outside the facility on May 30, 2025 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Loival Campus in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Megan Verner | Reuters
CNBC has removed more than 12 pages on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website related to sexual and gender identity, health equity and other topics.
The CDC received an order from the Health and Human Services department, which oversees the agency, in order to delete certain web pages by the end of September 19, according to an internal CDC email viewed by CNBC.
The page includes information on sexually transmitted diseases and gay men, on healthy equity for people with disabilities, and additional fact sheets on asexuality and bisexuality. Some Health Equity advocates say that removing such resources creates gaps in access to important health information, especially marginalized groups, and can undermine efforts to promote equitable care.
“Removing critical material from trustworthy government resources,” a spokesman for LBGT Pa Caucus, a nonprofit that promotes LGBTQ+ healthcare equity, said in a statement.
“Depriving gender identity resources doesn’t erase the need, it just erodes trust, causes confusion and puts patients at greater risk,” the spokesman said. “Clinicians and the communities they serve rely on accessible, accurate and comprehensive guidance to provide safe and effective care.”
The email did not provide details on why HHS told the CDC to delete the page or why it targeted a particular topic. However, several deleted resources topics have been long-standing targets of the Trump administration, publishing a series of executive actions that restrict the rights of transgender and non-binary people, reiterating efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion.
In a statement, a spokesperson for HHS said, “The CDC continues to keep its website in line with its management priorities and enforcement orders.” The CDC directed CNBC to HHS for comments.
According to Wayback Machine, the CDC webpage on Health Equity for people with disabilities on August 27th is offline as of September 26th.
CDC Website, Wayback Machine
It’s not the first time the administration has targeted health resources on federal agency websites.
Among other institutions, thousands of pages across the CDC and Food and Drug Administration websites have been suddenly lowered under President Donald Trump’s executive order, banning references to gender identity in federal policies and documents. In February, federal judges ordered the HHS, CDC and FDA to temporarily restore public access to the page while the lawsuit progresses.
The same judge ruled in July that the government illegally ordered the removal of large amounts of health resources from federal sites, demanding that the affected pages be reviewed and restored. Following that ruling, the Trump administration reported to the court on September 19, with most agencies completing restoration of pages and returning to 185 compliance, with only 11 pages still under review, according to court documents. It is unknown that several of the pages filmed this month have been in question in the lawsuit.
As of September 19, it is unclear which pages were still under review and why the CDC deleted more pages the same day after this ruling.
Attached to the internal CDC email was a 12-page spreadsheet that said the agency had been deleted as of September 19th. Another spreadsheet edited by agency employees and viewed by CNBC included additional sites that looked offline.
CNBC has confirmed that the next page is offline. The digital archive site Wayback machine is also displayed when it is last active. According to Wayback Machine, some pages were online recently in early September, but it’s unclear when CDC officially removed everything.
Some pages listed in the spreadsheet attached to the internal CDC email are still online. This includes pages that monitor laboratory-confirmed hospitalizations among children and adults associated with respiratory syncytial virus.
