
Loading summary
Ali Stuckey
Moms. The truth is most kids entertainment is designed to be addictive, make kids dependent upon screens and expose them to ideas and values that clash with what we're trying to teach at home. That's why you need to know about SherwoodKids.com Sherwood is a platform filled with wholesome audiobooks, podcasts, ebooks and low stimulation shows that actually engage kids imaginations, not suppress them. If your kids are used to the flashy, mindless mainstream shows, switching to Sherwood might be challenging at first because it requires kids to have active minds, but that's what sets Sherwood apart. It's genuinely good for kids. Sherwood will improve your kids ability to focus, strengthen their imagination, foster a love for reading, and encourage the virtues you actually want to see in them. So if you're tired of worrying about what your kids are watching and the negative impact it's having, and if you just want something normal, something entertaining and guilt free, visit sherwoodkids.com use code Allie for a special discount. Dr. Etan Heim is a whistleblower from Texas Children's Hospital where he uncovered doctors secretly performing transgender procedures to gender confused children. While he has been indicted by the federal government on a bunch of bogus charges and he has just been given a gag order, the judge is threatening him with federal prison if he does not stop talking about this case. Well now his wife, Andrea Heim, who is a lawyer, is here to tell us what is really going on. This is a fascinating and disturbing look at the incompetence and the evil that exist in parts of our government, and it's time for us to share the arrows with the Heim family. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com use code ALI at checkout. That's Good Ranchers.com code ALLY Andrea, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. I saw your thread on X. Some people are probably familiar if they remember Vanessa Savage's episode that we did, but could you just remind us who is your husband?
Andrea Heim
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. Alibeth so my name is Andrea Heim. My husband is Dr. Eitan Heim. Hey. He is a general surgeon and he was a whistleblower who exposed that Texas Children's Hospital, which is the largest children's hospital in the world, was lying to the public about the existence of its transgender program for children. As a result of his whistleblowing, the Texas legislature passed SB 14, which was the law banning transgender care for minors in the state of Texas, which took effect in September, and an investigation started into Texas Children's from the Texas Attorney General's office. After that, we received a felony indictment against my husband. He's been indicted on four felony counts for various completely made up and baseless violations of HIPAA. And we've been fighting that since June of 2023. So, you know, I think, I do think what happened was in retaliation for him speaking out, but ultimately our goal was always to protect children. I'm speaking out today instead of him because my husband is under what we've been calling a de facto gag order or a non gag gag order. He's been really active on X posting about what's happened to us in this case and some of the government corruption that we've experienced. And the judge has basically instructed him not to continue to speak out about the government, about the prosecutors, and we don't know the consequences for violating that. And I can get into, you know, specifically what we think that order means, but for now, it's safer for me to be the one speaking out on his behalf.
Ali Stuckey
Okay, so tell me what your husband saw that compelled him to speak out about it. Obviously, we know that these transgender procedures, the medications prescribed, it wasn't supposed to be happening, and yet it was continuing to happen. But what specifically did he see that made him say, okay, I've got to say something about this?
Andrea Heim
So we have been married only a couple months. We got married in August of 2022. And in fall of 2022, Eitan was working as a surgery resident. So he was doing his surgical training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, one of the best surgery training programs in the country. And they cover a variety of hospitals around the Texas Medical center, which is the largest medical center in the world, including Texas Children's, the largest children's hospital in the world. My husband did a lot of work there, and some of his colleagues had told him that they were implanting puberty blocking devices into children as young as 11 years old, 11, 12, 13 year old kids. So we sort of heard this just as a rumor. My husband had done those procedures before, but only on kids who actually had real hormonal deficiencies and needed that treatment. The fact that they were doing it on kids who claim to have gender dysphoria was really surprising. So he told me that this, you know, that he had heard rumors of this going on. People had told him specifically that they had done it. And, you know, we started to look into it further, and the first thing I did was Google Texas Children's Transgender program. It didn't exist on the Internet, and that's really remarkable. Texas children didn't put anything out. And the only thing that you could see was a statement From March of 2022 in which Texas Children's Hospital stated unequivocally that they were stopping their program due to a Texas Attorney General opinion that these procedures may be considered child abuse under Texas law. So they were stopping. They say, paused. I would say it was stopping the program, but they never admitted that they restarted it. So it was surprising to hear these procedures were still going on. And the. You know, we Googled it, and if you Google Texas Children's, you know, you can find the most rare chromosomal diseases. You know, everything has a place because people need to know to go online and look for doctors that treat their child's condition. So we started to hear that this was happening. And then someone sent my husband a link to a Zoom conference in January of 2023, which was hosted by the Baylor College of Medicine medical ethics organization. It is essentially a medical ethics student organization. And we joined that Zoom call, and I actually joined myself under my Beta name, so my husband wasn't implicated and reported that. And what we learned is that Texas children had an extensive transgender medicine program. They were implanting puberty blockers and doing and prescribing puberty blockers on children as young as 11 years old. And they started doing this only three days after they said that they paused or stopped the program, and that they, you know, were. They had the doctors who were part of this program on there, and those doctors said that they were prescribing puberty blockers to children, that they were telling parents that they needed to agree or consent to giving children puberty blockers. Otherwise, you know, they use this line, which I know that Vanessa said a lot as well, and people in the media have talked about, which is that, would you rather have a living son or a dead daughter?
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
Andrea Heim
And I think this is one of the most malicious lies that has to do with the transgender medicine children. And not only that, but recently, just last week, in an oral argument before the Supreme Court, the attorney for the ACLU admitted that there's no evidence that puberty blockers on children or, you know, these hormonal interventions decrease the risk of suicide. So they've completely backed away from it. It was always a fiction.
Ali Stuckey
Yep.
Andrea Heim
And we knew that they were doing that to parents. We knew they were doing that to children. And they admitted in that Zoom conference as well that they were doing it to hide in A way that would hide it from governing medical bodies by failing to publish or, you know, to write down consults to the transgender clinic. So the whole thing was, you know, extremely within a hospital. It was public. But to, you know, the outside public, to parents who may be taking their children to Texas children, you would never know that this program existed.
Ali Stuckey
Quick pause to tell you about our first sponsor for the day, and that is Cozy Earth. A set of sheets from Cozy Earth or a set of pajamas or loungewear would be an amazing gift for Christmas. Christmas, I just got two new pajama sets from Cozy Earth. They are amazing. They're my favorite things ever. I am wearing them every day, every night. I love them so much. And we love our Cozy Earth sheets. Have for such a long time. I've gotten so spoiled, I can't sleep on any other kind of sheet because they are so soft. They're so luxurious. They're so breathable. And the best part is, with my code, you get a really, really good deal. So if you go to cozy earth.com/relatable and use code relatable, you get 40% off. That's an amazing discount. Go to cozy earth.com relatable code relatable. Okay. So that was 2022 that he started speaking up about it.
Andrea Heim
It was.
Ali Stuckey
Or that you found out about it.
Andrea Heim
When he found out about it, he found out about it. In fall of 2022, we started learning more about it. In spring and winter 2023, we had that Zoom conference, which I mentioned. He also found Grand Rounds lecture, which was, you know, these are hosted by the pediatric program at Texas Children. They're open to the public, and they are essentially like the most prestigious lecture series within the hospital which states the institutional priorities. So we learned from that, that the program existed and exactly how they were starting children on puberty blockers, young, then moving to cross sex hormones and then advising moving on to actual surgeries, including phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, mastectomy, things like that. So we started to learn about that. And then he started reaching out anonymously to journalists in spring of 2023. He wanted to get the story out and have people know what was happening, that Texas Children's was lying to the public. But at we were completely anonymous. You know, he didn't want anyone to know his identity, frankly. And then alongside the journalist Christopher Rufo, in May 2023, Chris Rufo finally picked up the story and saw what was happening. In addition to the evidence I just mentioned, my husband provided redacted surgery and endocrine clinic schedules which showed unequivocally that they were doing transgender procedures on children at Texas Children, starting only three days after they said that, they stopped. And my husband provided schedules that were redacted. He didn't release any protective patient information. Just the fact that these procedures were.
Ali Stuckey
Happening and this was 2023, that he was talking to Christopher Rufo and he just thought, okay, I need to get this out there. Can you tell me before we go on, why did it disturb your husband so much? Not just when it comes to the hospital line about it. Obviously there's an ethical issue there. But I am gathering that he was disturbed by the procedures themselves. And so medically and morally, why was he against these procedures happening?
Andrea Heim
The procedures involved. The main thing that Texas Children was doing that we were aware of were puberty blockers. And they were doing it in two ways. They were prescribing medication, puberty blockers, and doing injections. And they were also implanting surgical devices into the arm. And my husband's done these procedures before, and he explained them to me at length. Essentially what you do is you cut into a child's arm and you implant a small device that's about this big that stays, I believe it's for a year that it stays in there. And the puberty blockers, as was admitted again in the Supreme Court oral argument in the Scurmeti case last week, render children infertile. The evidence has overwhelmingly showed that children who start blockers will never have, you know, well, in almost all cases, not be able to have children. They also have long term effects, including affecting brain development, your heart, your growth. You know, young boys may never have adult genitalia, you know, but it just, it stunts your growth in every way. There are 20 year olds with osteoporosis because of the hormones that they're started on. And this is just the beginning. The puberty blockers are bad enough in and of themselves, but 90 something percent of those children who go on puberty blockers end up on cross sex hormones and surgery. So I think, you know, people say, or at least on proponents of transgender care for children have said that these procedures are irreversible. And that's absolutely not true. And I don't even think that they're standing behind that anymore.
Ali Stuckey
They say that they're. They say that they're reversible, that it's no big deal, that you're just pausing for a little bit. But your husband knows from a medical standpoint, that's not True. And just to clarify, reiterate, you already said this, but to reiterate again that your husband has performed these procedures, but not because a healthy child just thinks that they are the opposite sex. But there may be some actual legitimate medical diagnosis that requires puberty blockers or something like that. So what your husband saw was, okay, this is being used for a non legitimate diagnosis and that it's not required. This child is not requiring to be put on cross sex hormones or to be given a puberty blocker. This is going to carry risks that really have no reward on, on the other side. So even just from a scientific standpoint, your husband is thinking this is a huge problem and parents are being manipulated and the public in the state is being lied to.
Andrea Heim
Absolutely. And I think I know you've had Vanessa Savage on your show. She was a nurse whistleblower that came out after ACOM came out in May of 2023. They both initially came out anonymously. And as Vanessa said, she described what was going on in these patient groups that they were asking children as young as 11 to consent to a loss of fertility. I just had a baby two months ago. I can't have even imagined having the mental capacity to know what that means and to make that decision. 11 years old. So I think morally what was happening to these children, they were being put on irreversible medical treatments that have a host of serious medical risks that stay with them forever. And the parents weren't being appropriately informed about it and the children can't consent to it. So it was really, what was happening was absolutely disturbing. And I think we both knew. He certainly knew and I agreed with him that he needed to speak out.
Ali Stuckey
Every Life is the first and only pro life diaper company. They really put their money where their mouth is when it comes to the pro life cause. You can buy a buy for a cause bundle and they will send resources, baby items, maternity items to pregnant moms in need through pro life organizations and pregnancy centers across the country. They also give their employees, whether they are having a baby biologically or they're adopting a baby, a baby bonus to make sure that they're getting taken care of. And most importantly, they are not using our dollars to support pro abortion causes and pro abortion politicians. A lot of these major diaper brands, even the clean ones that you love, are supporting these democrat politicians that are trying to make it legal to abort a child through all nine months. You don't want to support that if you can help it. So switch to every life they are the diapers that we use in our home totally leak proof with great ingredients. They're really clean, and most importantly, they work really well. Go to everylife.com use code ALI10 to enjoy a 10% discount on your first order. That's everylife.com code ALI10. Okay, so continuing on the timeline, he talked to Chris Ruo initially. At this point, was he still anonymous?
Andrea Heim
Yes, he was anonymous until 2024. So we were trying to stay anonymous. It really. I. One of the. I never thought I would go public with this case for the reason, you know, for the gag order reason I stated earlier. But he never intended to either. You know, we were perfectly content to remain anonymous to get the information out there to the people who needed it. Name the Texas Attorney General's office and the Texas Legislature. So In May of 2023, Christopher Rifo publishes an article. My husband is listed as an anonymous whistleblower from Texas Children's that included these schedules, that included the Zoom Conference, and it included the Graham Rounds lecture showing that Texas Children's was flying to the public. And he showed that article. From what we've spoken, we've spoken to people in the Texas government who have said that that article was disseminated to every senator that was voting on SB14, which was the fail to ban transgender interventions on minors. And that vote happened a day or maybe two days after my husband's story went public. When that story went public, there were representatives, particularly from the Houston area, including Democrats, who came out and said, I didn't know this was happening in my district. And they switched their votes, and the bill ultimately passed. And so, you know, transgender interventions on minors are illegal under Texas law. Now, that happened in May 2023. So I think, at minimum, my husband's story had an influence total on that building.
Ali Stuckey
Absolutely.
Andrea Heim
The Texas Attorney General's office, Ken Paxton's office, started an investigation into Texas Children's, which I don't know the status of that, but I believe it's still ongoing. And Vanessa came out and said what was happening inside the clinic room. So we were content. That was it. We were done. You know, my husband, honestly. But a month later, In June of 2023, the day of my husband's graduation from his medical resident surgical residency, we received a knock on the door from two armed federal agents from Health and Human Services who told Atom that they were there to investigate the case involving medical records. And at the time we were getting ready for his graduation, his family was in town. It was a celebratory day, and I Was in the shower getting ready, and my husband comes in, and he says, there's two federal agents here from hhs, and they want to talk to me. And so I, you know, get ready as quickly as I can. I think I had half of a face of makeup on. My hair was probably still wet. And I go out, and my husband's sitting at our dining room table talking to these agents, and they're setting up a video camera because they want to get a statement from him. But I'm an attorney myself, and I remember from Criminal Adjudication 101 that if federal agents come to your home, you have the right to ask for an attorney. And so I took Eitan into the bedroom, and we talked about it, and I said, I really think that we shouldn't do this without you having an attorney. So he asked for an attorney, and they left. But before they left, they served him what's called a target letter, informing him that he was the target of a criminal investigation involving medical records. And I think we both, at that moment, knew exactly what that meant. So that day, it was one of the most surreal days of my life. We had no idea what to do. We immediately contacted Chris Russo, who dropped everything and said, okay, I'm going to help you find the attorney. And he texted us the name of an attorney who's now my husband's attorney. Her name is Marcella Burke. And I think after five minutes of speaking to her, her partner, Jeff hall, and then another attorney that she got later, we knew immediately that she was the right person for the job, that she understood what this was, and she understood the cause that my husband was fighting for. So after lining that up, I had champagne at the apartment because it was my husband's graduation day. So we had some champagne, and we planned our war strategy. We knew that what this was going to be was going to change our lives forever. And that's exactly what happened. And it's been a year and a half, over a year and a half now since that graduation day, and it's just something different. And.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah, yeah, tell me about that. Tell me what the timeline has been since then. What has this fight looked like?
Andrea Heim
So after June 2023, my husband was under investigation. And what happened over the next six months is I can only describe it as corruption. It was unbelievable what the communications with the attorneys and the federal prosecutor was like. The federal prosecutor on the case at the time was a woman named Tina Ansari. She's a prosecutor in the Southern District of Texas, which covers Houston. And from the Beginning, she made clear that she sent federal agents to her home without knowing what statute she was even prosecuting a fund under. She couldn't name it. They believed they were egregiously misinformed about the facts. They thought that he released patient names, which was absolutely not the case. And they essentially admitted that. She told him that she had. She told our attorneys that she had spoken with the victims from the aclu, you know, through the aclu, and that, you know, she felt bad for them and, you know, was, you know, horrified at what he had done. She wanted him to apologize, and most.
Ali Stuckey
Importantly, what is meant by victims from the aclu.
Andrea Heim
So the ACLU was representing. We understand. And this is all laid out in a letter that my husband's attorneys wrote to Congress where they've laid out all of the corruption that happened prior to January 2023, and including communications with prosecutor. Because what happened was so egregious that they felt that they needed to disclose it to Congress and specifically to the Weaponization on the Federal Government Committee.
Ali Stuckey
2023 or 2024?
Andrea Heim
20. Early 2024 is when. I'm sorry, early 2020.
Ali Stuckey
That's okay. I just want to make sure. So. Because at that point, you had seen the corruption, you knew that you were under or he was under federal investigation, you had talked to these prosecutors who apparently don't even know what exactly they're prosecuting. So then in January 2024, at the beginning of this year is when you talk to Congress and you were like, this is everything that's been happening. And so. Yes. Sorry. Continue, continue on what. What is the ACLU's involvement in this?
Andrea Heim
So the ACLU, we believe, was representing the transgender children who are going to Texas. Children. Again, their identities have never been released. They weren't released by my husband. Nobody could identify them. In fact, the government about these children than we ever did, because their indictment includes the initials of the kids, something my husband included. What, he and Christopher.
Ali Stuckey
So I'm sorry, you understand because you're an attorney, and so you can help me understand how. So it's the. It's the feds that have indicted your husband, but he's not getting sued by the aclu. Correct. So was it the ACLU and the patient. So is it that the patients, after Christopher Rufo's article came out, they would have gone to the aclu and the ACLU would have then complained to the government and say. And said, hey, you need to get this guy?
Andrea Heim
I believe so.
Ali Stuckey
Okay. So we don't really know, to be.
Andrea Heim
Honest, I can't tell you exactly what the involvement is. We know that she talking to the families of the victims, and we know that the ACLU was involved in some capacity. I couldn't tell you exactly what we're going.
Ali Stuckey
Got it. Okay. Okay. So your husband talks to Congress in January 2024.
Andrea Heim
Yeah. My husband's lawyers write a letter to Congress explaining what's been happening. And really, I mean, there are two other things that happened during that sort of June to December 2023 time period. One was that she told my husband, and this is in the letter that my lawyers wrote to Congress, you know, recognizing that any false statements would be legally actionable. She told my husband essentially, that if he didn't plead, that she was going to go after him for a felony and that she was going to go after him without concern for losing. So she said to our, you know, to my husband's attorneys from the beginning that this was a malicious prosecution. The other thing that she did was she threatened. In the very first conversation she had with my attorney, she threatened my career. I actually work at the Department of Justice myself, and at the time I was going. I was undergoing a federal background check, which is a part of any. Any one who becomes an assistant U.S. attorney gets a background check. And she said that if. Unless. That she would not inform the FBI background checkers of me telling my husband to exercise his constitutional rights, speak to an attorney, that she wouldn't inform them of what happened unless I became difficult.
Ali Stuckey
Okay.
Andrea Heim
You know, well, I've become difficult lately.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah. But you do have your job.
Andrea Heim
I do have my job. Yeah. Yeah. And I work in a completely different district, in a completely different division, but I don't have any information about what's going on the case. Right. But, yes, I do work for the Department of Justice.
Ali Stuckey
Yes. And what has happened since then? What has happened this year in January.
Andrea Heim
Of 2024, because of everything that we had learned, we knew that they were going to bring it to an indictment. I mean, they were absolutely determined. The sheer volume of the corruption that we had experienced made it clear that my husband needed to speak out in his own defense. So in January 2024, while he was still under investigation but had not yet been indicted, my husband went public and he told the world first in an interview with Chris Rufo, that I am the anonymous whistleblower from Texas Children. Here's what I saw happening, and I'm under federal investigation. And that was a hard decision. I would say that in some ways was the hardest decision that we made, because It's a very rare situation in which a criminal defendant is willing to speak so publicly on their behalf. Most lawyers would tell you, don't speak to the media. Don't, you know, just keep it quiet. Just, you know, let's see if we can work this out. But what we experienced, this was not a typical case. And my husband wanted to tell people what was happening because people needed to know what the DOJ was doing. And the first time that people heard his name, we wanted them to hear it as eitohnheim whistleblower and not a ton home, you know, criminal defendant. Yeah, which is what he is. He's a whistleblower. So in January 2024, he went public. He was on a lot of media. He was on Tucker Carlson, Dr. Phil, Laura Ingram, multiple times. A lot of others that I'm not naming. He filmed a Jordan Peterson interview in June of 2023 that has over a million views. So I mean, really, he was trying to publish our message as wide as we could. The other reason that we did that is because we very quickly ran out of money. We spent our entire life savings, years of hard work. You know, I didn't spend a lot of money in my, you know, when I was younger, neither did my husband. We were saving up for our future and we drained all of our life savings in about three months. And so we knew that we needed to go public. In addition to all the reasons I just mentioned, part of it was because we needed to be able to get the message out there to fundraise for our legal defense. And people have been incredibly generous. We still have a lot to go, but that was one of the reasons that we did that as well.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah. And we will put up the link to your Give send go in the description. So anyone who wants to donate anything, I'm sure anything helps, but we'll make sure that the link is up so people can click directly on that. Next sponsor is Good Ranchers. If you have not subscribed to Good Ranchers yet, if you are not getting that box of American meat to your front door every month, what are you doing? Are you still wasting time and money and energy going to the grocery store every week trying to make sure that you're getting high quality meat that doesn't break the bank. And you're really wondering, where is this from? Is it from China? Is it from Nicaragua? It says made in the usa, but I know that just means packaged in the usa. You don't want to stress yourself out. Why not support a Christian conservative America loving All American Meat company and get your meat shipped to your front door. They've got bacon, they've got seafood, they've got all kinds of beef. They've got better than organic chicken. We eat it all in the Stucky household. Our favorite right now though is their seed oil free chicken nuggets. You cannot find seed oil free chicken nuggets anywhere in grocery stores. Go right now. Goodranchers.com use code ALI at checkout. You'll get $25 off your order. That's goodranchers.com code ALI. So you did this media tour. I talked to Vanessa Savage. Obviously the feds showed up at her house too. It's just so, it's so strange because clearly laws have not been broken, neither in Etan's case or in Vanessa's case. And yet it seems ideologically motivated that this prosecutor, that these feds are going after a doctor and a nurse who are sounding the alarm about things that are illegal, that are unethical, that are non scientific, even just according to their medical opinion. They absolutely have the right to speak up and say this is wrong, that this is happening. I don't know, it just seems like they are ideologically motivated that they are going to protect gender ideology at all costs, the transition of children at all costs. And that is very dark.
Andrea Heim
Absolutely. And I, there is not a doubt in my mind that this is ideologically driven, this case. You know, the indictment. My husband was indicted in June of 2020 and you know, reading what they've charged him with, if they've charged him not with disclosing medical records, which is typically when you, how you would charge hipaa. They charged him with accessing medical records that he has access to and that as a doctor at the hospital he was authorized to access. So it's an absolutely insane Kafka esque legal theory, legal procedure. But nonetheless, In June of 2024, two days after we had moved into our new house, at 7 in the morning, we got a really aggressive knock on the door. And it was three or four armed federal marshals who served my husband with an indictment. Four felony counts of hipaa, accessing medical records and something that is almost never charges a felony and certainly never charges a felony in this context, carrying 10 years in prison.
Ali Stuckey
Wow.
Andrea Heim
My husband was arraigned about a week later in Houston and right before him had been, you know, they were arraigning people on crimes of child porn possession, drug possession, things like that, drug trafficking, all of which carried similar length sentences to what my husband was facing.
Ali Stuckey
Wow.
Andrea Heim
It was really surreal. So.
Ali Stuckey
So, okay, so can you tell us you can. Since you're a lawyer, you can break down the legal ease for us. He was originally charged in 2023, but you said he was indicted in 2024. Can you tell us the difference between a charge and an indictment?
Andrea Heim
So he was the subject. He was the target of a federal investigation in 2023.
Ali Stuckey
Got it.
Andrea Heim
He was informed that the investigation was happening. Usually when the DOJ says that you're a target, actually, it's required that when someone is the target of investigation that they are the person who's going to be indicted. It's different than being, let's say, a witness in an investigation or subject of an investigation. So June 2023, we learned that he was under federal investigation and that he was likely to be indicted in June of 2020. Or, sorry, June of 2024, he was actually indicted, meaning that they had gone to the grand jury and specifically gotten an indictment and laid out the charges, which are four felony counts of HIPAA carrying up to 10 years in prison.
Ali Stuckey
Okay, and. Okay, and what happens at an arraignment? You said that he was arraigned in Houston a couple months ago.
Andrea Heim
Yeah. That's where you plead guilty or not guilty before magistrate judge. So he had pled not guilty, of course. And then the case really just continues. We got discovery from the government where they provided him with evidence of what they're allegedly charging him with, and we start preparing for trial. Initially, trial was set in August of 2024. It was since moved to October and then was moved to December and most recently moved to early February. So right now his trial is scheduled for early February. There's been a lot happening in this case since then. I'm happy to get into that. This gag order is just one of those things.
Ali Stuckey
Yes. Yeah, go for it.
Andrea Heim
I think the biggest thing.
Ali Stuckey
Oh, go ahead. Go ahead now.
Andrea Heim
Go ahead. I was just going to say, I think the biggest thing that's happened in this case is that the government's initial indictment charged him with false pretense, that he had illegally accessed records under false pretenses. Their belief was that he had, quote, no reason to be accessing medical records at Texas Children. At the time he accessed the medical records, he was officially working as part of their residency program. He was officially working at another hospital. But what the government knew and what they failed to include in the indictment was that my husband actually was treating patients at Texas Children's Hospital, both adult patients and pediatric patients, even when he was working at this other hospital because he was often called to assist with surgeries there. And we knew that in April 2023, he actually performed surgery at Texas Children's. So he had every reason to be in their medical system and to be accessing their medical records. The government knew that, and they indicted him anyway and said that he had no reason. When we pointed that out, they actually had to go back and change their indictment to take all of that out. They also had. So they had to change their indictment once, and then they had to change it again because they had multiple typos in their indictment, including where they didn't even include statute that they were charging him under. The most legally operative part of the indictment was a typo. They charged him with a statutory provision that didn't exist. So they embarrassed themselves, and they had to change it. They also initially just said that he was. That the victims were Texas Children's doctors and patients. Later, they changed it to say that the victims were Texas Children's Hospital and the doctors. So there's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of things that made it very clear that, you know, I think it was Stalin's head of the secret police area who said, show me the man, and I'll show you the crime. Right. And that's exactly what they knew they wanted to get him for because he had an ideological opposition to transgender care on children. And that was a priority of the Biden administration.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
Andrea Heim
And so they invented new crimes that had never been charged with in order to. In order to target him.
Ali Stuckey
And the process is the punishment. Also, even if it ends up that he is vindicated, the fact that you guys have had to spend your life savings while you've had a baby instead of just celebrating his, you know, his graduation and then getting pregnant and have a baby, which I know that you have enjoyed and celebrated all of those things. But it is against this backdrop of this investigation, and instead of saving for your child's future, you have had to spend all of your money, all these donations on legal fees, and that is the punishment. And they are trying to show people it's not worth it. It is not worth speaking up about this, because if you do, we are going to do the same thing to you. It really is so evil. If you are looking to protect yourself or your children or someone in your family from the predation of porn. Explicit online content that you need to partner with Covenant Eyes. This is a software that you download on your devices to block pornography and explicit content. They also have an app, a victory app, with different kinds of transparency and accountability tools. You can partner with an accountability partner who can actually see your Internet activity. Just making sure that you are staying on the straight and narrow when it comes to what you're filling your mind with and what you see online. Go to covenanteyes.com Ali when you do, you can use Covenant Eyes for free for 30 days. Try it out. It really will help you. They have been in the anti porn game for years and their software will really help you if that's something that you're trying to protect yourself from. Covenanteyes.com Code Alpha. Tell me what happened on December 3rd with this gag order.
Andrea Heim
So, December 3rd, and I just want to return to one thing about having a daughter. I think this is illustrative of exactly what this prosecution has, what the toll that it's taken on our family. So my daughter was born on September 25 unexpectedly. She was a couple weeks early, but I had gone in for my 38 week appointment and had high blood pressure and so my doctor ended up inducing me early. I gave birth to my daughter by emergency c section on September 25th. On September 26th, my husband was due in Houston for a hearing in federal court.
Ali Stuckey
Wow.
Andrea Heim
So I actually had an emergency C section, you know, a few hours before my husband had to leave to go to Houston. And, you know, he spent a few, I think once, maybe two hours at most with me and our daughter and he had to leave when I was still in post op recovery. Wow. Fortunately, my parents were able to be there with me. But that's the type of toll that this has taken, is that as something is, you know, happy. The best day of my life was the day that, you know, my baby daughter was born and my husband had to leave early because of this proceeding. And then for weeks after that I was, you know, I constantly think about the fact that he's being charged with 10 years in prison.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah. I mean, you're still freshly postpartum right now, like two months. That's fresh. You've got a lot going on in your mind and your body to be also dealing with this. And now you're basically the spokesperson for your husband because he can't speak up.
Andrea Heim
That's right. That's absolutely right. So it's just been tough. And I think, you know, sometimes I just will look at him holding her daughter and think, you know, what they're trying to, they're trying to put him in prison for 10 years to miss, you know, the beginning of her growing up. And, you know, sometimes that can get overwhelming, and it can get really, really dark and really depressing if I think. If I think about it too much. So I just wanted to tell that story because I think that illustrates what, you know, the process is, the punishment, all the worry that all of this financial toll, you know, it's been immense. But I think, you know, they're trying to say, to your point, that this isn't worth it to speak up. And as somebody who's been through it and you've seen my husband go through it, I don't think either of us for a second would have changed what he did. Because protecting these children and what they're doing to these kids and the life that they're leaving them with and taking away their choice, you know, to have a family and leaving them with irreparable medical conditions is so much worse than what's happened to us. So I don't think either of us would have changed that.
Ali Stuckey
Well, I'm very grateful. So, yes, tell us why you are now the spokesperson. You're a very good spokesperson for him. And so I even think that was providential that you also had the legal background and you're able to articulate as well as you are. But tell us why he is not legally able to be his own spokesperson right now.
Andrea Heim
Sure. So the government recently moved for what's called a gag order to stop him from speaking out. And there are two things that pursue this. My husband, you know, as I mentioned, has been very active in the media. He has a very active account on X where he talks about, in honest terms, what has happened to us throughout this case, what the government's been doing. And in most cases, he uses clips of screenshots of public hearings from this case, transcripts of public hearings, transcripts of motions that anyone can download on the Internet. So he's just been talking about what's happened. And two things have happened recently in this case that I think in some ways probably precipitated their request for a gag order. One of these is that the government absolutely embarrassed themselves at a hearing a couple of weeks ago on a motion to dismiss. They, you know, the lead prosecutor was completely unprepared. They were, you know, disciplined by the judge for not being prepared for the typos that I mentioned in the indictment for various other things, practicing without law, license, things like that. So my husband was publishing, you know, transcripts of that hearing and commenting on them. The other thing that we learned is that the lead prosecutor on the case, the one who had been pushing this all along, had Serious financial conflicts and personal conflicts with Texas Children's Hospital. Her brother, who's the CEO of their family company, has contracts with several hospitals in the medical center. And both her brother and her aunt are fundraisers for Texas Children's Hospital.
Ali Stuckey
What's her name again?
Andrea Heim
Her name is Tina Ansari. Okay. And they have major. Her family members are major fundraisers for Texas Children's Hospital. We're talking in the millions of dollars. So we learned that my husband had been talking about that publicly. There was a Fox News article that came out about these conflicts recently. And after all. So she's now no longer on the case. We don't know why, but I suspect it has something to do with those two things. Shortly after that. You know, my husband's been posting on X since at least January 2024, but they've only moved for a gag order recently. And they asked the court to silence him, to stop him from what they called online bullying of prosecutors. Mind you, this is the same office that commonly prosecutes cartel members and serious violent offenders that they're going after my husband for bullying. They said that, you know, he was likely to taint a jury pool, which is just an absolutely ridiculous argument. That jury pool would have been 5.5 million people. So just, you know, an absolutely ridiculous motion that was designed to shut him up because what he was saying was things that they didn't like. And on December 3rd, we had a hearing in front of the judge where the government walked through all of the things that they found objectionable. And some of these were things that he did. They didn't like. Really what it was is they didn't like what my husband was saying. They don't like that. He's calling them corrupt. He called them woke aristocrats. He called them, you know, saying that they were incompetent, all things which are, by the way, objectively true. But even if they weren't, it's his right to say it. And so they walked through all of this and it was clear that, you know, this is something that I think the judge, he didn't really say his reasoning, but it seemed clear that he didn't like it either. He didn't like what was being said about the government. My husband was talking about, you know, what happened in the court. He didn't like that either. And he, you know, imposed what we've been calling a non gag gag order or a de facto gag order. He told Eitan and his attorneys to essentially stop talking about the case in the media, to stop talking about the judge to stop talking about the prosecutors. We don't know exactly what's barred by it, but he did threaten my husband with federal prison if he continues to engage in similar conduct to what he.
Ali Stuckey
Had been doing on X. Yeah, so he said. So you said the judge threatened Etan with federal prison and his attorneys with sanctions if they continue to post so called inflammatory content on x about the DOJ's corruption in this case. And you also said that when the judge, I guess put up these exposts and threatened, you know, your husband with federal prison that it was so absurd that there was audible laughter in the courtroom, including a post from one of Von's attorneys, which referred to the bungling, illicit twitching, pile of catastrophe that this case is. So these posts were the ones put up that the judge was trying to very seriously say, see, these are awful. These are inflammatory. This is why we must put a gag order on you. And you're saying people in the courtroom.
Andrea Heim
Laughed the judge, I want to be really clear about this. It wasn't the judge that put them up, it was the prosecutors. Okay, so the.
Ali Stuckey
Oh yes, I see. I just said that wrong and told.
Andrea Heim
The judge, this is an example of the types of things he's been said he's been saying object to. So yeah, and that's exactly right is not only were they listing Aon's posts, but they were listing a post from his attorneys and then from various X users who, you know, made these comments. I think you know, the one of them called the prosecution team a clown car of incompetent midwits or you know, something like that. There was audible laughter in the courtroom. I mean there were, there was media there. You know, people on our side were there. There were some other prosecutors there, there, there was audible laughter when they put these things up. That's how.
Ali Stuckey
Car of laughable midwits. Well, it's a funny picture. It's a funny mental picture. And of course the government wants to be taken very seriously. And so anything that hurts their pride, they are going to try to silence as much as much as possible. So what are next steps for you guys? You're awaiting trial, which starts in February, you believe that's right?
Andrea Heim
Yeah, trial starts in February. Early February is when it's scheduled. I think February 10th is jury selection. So for now, I think we're just moving forward. We're trying to get the word out of what happened in this case. I think, you know, essentially what the judge did by not writing down a gag order. Normally if you're going to gag someone's First Amendment rights if you're going to stop them from exercising their constitutional right to speak, typically you would put that in an order on paper that we can appeal to the appellate court. And he didn't do that. And so it's really sort of a looming threat of what happens if my husband speaks out, what happens if the attorney speak out. And we just don't know. So for now, I'm going to continue to speak out. I think what happened with this gag order hearing is a travesty. I do think it's unconstitutional in my opinion. And so I'm not going to allow the government to tell us what we can and can't say about this case. And people need to know because the gag order is just the culmination of everything that has happened to us in this case at the hands of the government. It's, you know, the cherry on the top of a Sunday of incompetence that ends corruption that we've seen. And so to me, it's important that people know what's happening in this case. They know that my husband's First Amendment rights are under attack. But I'm not bound by the jurisdiction of the court and I can speak freely about what has been happening to us. So I'm going to continue to do that pending trial.
Ali Stuckey
Last sponsor for the day is NetSuite. This is for business owners. Over 38,000 businesses have future proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle. The number one cloud ERP bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR into one fluid platform with one unified business management suite. There's one source of truth giving you the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. Real time insights and forecasting so you can look into the future with actionable data. You can close your books a lot more quickly, saving you really valuable time. Right now you can download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com ali that free guide is at netsuite.com/ally. My goodness, the fact that they would try to inhibit his First Amendment rights because their feelings were hurt or they were embarrassed. I'm looking at some of these posts that he retweeted someone by the name of Kyle Seraphine. I don't know all of these X users, but I'd like to see government officials learn their job is public, paid for by the public and open to the public scrutiny. The number of effeminate clowns at DOJ who blatantly engage in bad faith legal work is stunning. It Is my life's mission to professionally skewer and embarrass these absolute stooges. Someone, I don't know who this person is on X and X user. The prosecutor, the prosecutorial team is a clown car of incompetent midwits and it's not going well for them. So now the doj and it just goes on and on explaining what happened. And so I know that the. That your lawyers are fighting for his First Amendment rights. Sorry if you've already explained this, but is there a chance that this could be lifted, he will continue to be able to speak out?
Andrea Heim
I think there definitely is a chance right now. You know, the instruction is what it is. You know, I, I think we're certainly. He's abiding by it and his attorneys are abiding by it. My decision to speak out has nothing to do with him. You know, as soon as I heard that he was being limited and being able to speak out, I wanted to speak out. So I just want to be very clear that he doesn't have. He doesn't write my back post. I write my own ex post. I wanted to speak out from the get go. This is my decision 100%. So I think it could change. I doubt that it will before trial. I think, you know, this is just something that we're going to have to live with. And he's abiding by the judge's instruction, as are his attorneys. So it's just a matter of how do we continue to get the message out, you know, and my personal desire to have people know what's going on in this case.
Ali Stuckey
Yes, and amen. Well, we're going to be praying for y'all and following this closely. If there's anything else that we can do. I mean, my audience is really, really good at rallying around people who are. We call it sharing the arrows. And that's exactly what you and your husband are doing. Rather than saying, we see this thing going on. I don't want to get involved. I'm too scared to get involved because of the risk to my career or my life. He decided. And you decided to stand up and say, you know what, no, I'll take whatever arrows you're willing to throw at me because this cause is worth it. And when that happens, the rest of us need to stand up and try to bolster you as much as possible. So I'll post that. Gibson, go link. And then also, if people just want to support y'all, send words of encouragement, is there a place they can do that.
Andrea Heim
Absolutely. And we really appreciate that, Alibaba. And thank you so much for giving me the platform to discuss this case. It really means a lot to us. So, yeah, the way they can do that is on our gifts and go profile. You can send prayers in addition to money. We love both of them. So that is giftsandgo.com texaswhistleblower there's a place to give money. There's also a place to just give prayers. And any encouragement would be absolutely welcome. I can't tell you, we would have never made it this far if not for the support of average people who just heard the story and wanted to help us. And we're getting close to trial and the legal bills are mounting. Every one of these motions, every time the government files something like a gag order, it costs us tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. And we absolutely could not afford it if not for the support of average people. And we really appreciate it.
Ali Stuckey
Well, thank you so much, Andrea. We will be rooting y'all on.
Andrea Heim
Thank you so much, Elliot.
Ali Stuckey
Thank you.
Podcast Summary: Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey – Ep 1113 | The DOJ Threatens Prison over Exposing 'Gender Care' for Children | Guest: Andrea Heim
Introduction
In Episode 1113 of "Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey," hosted by Blaze Podcast Network, Allie Beth Stuckey delves into a pressing and controversial issue: the Department of Justice's (DOJ) actions against whistleblowers exposing transgender care practices for children. The guest for this episode is Andrea Heim, a lawyer and the wife of Dr. Etan Heim, a whistleblower from Texas Children's Hospital. This episode provides an in-depth exploration of the ethical, legal, and personal ramifications of exposing alleged governmental and medical misconduct.
1. Background of Andrea and Dr. Etan Heim (02:22)
Andrea Heim introduces herself and her husband, Dr. Etan Heim, a general surgeon who worked at Texas Children's Hospital—the largest children's hospital globally. Dr. Heim became a whistleblower after uncovering that the hospital was secretly performing transgender procedures on children, including puberty blockers and surgical interventions, despite the hospital's public statement in March 2022 that it had paused its transgender program due to potential legal issues under Texas law.
"My husband is Dr. Etan Heim. He is a general surgeon and he was a whistleblower who exposed that Texas Children's Hospital... was lying to the public about the existence of its transgender program for children." [02:22]
2. Discovery and Initial Whistleblowing Efforts (04:29)
Dr. Heim became aware of the clandestine transgender procedures through rumors from his colleagues and further corroborated this information by attending a Zoom conference hosted by the Baylor College of Medicine's medical ethics organization. It was revealed that the hospital had resumed transgender treatments shortly after announcing a pause, targeting children as young as 11 years old.
"Texas children had an extensive transgender medicine program. They were implanting puberty blockers and doing and prescribing puberty blockers on children as young as 11 years old." [04:29]
Andrea and Etan Heim attempted to expose these practices anonymously by reaching out to journalists, eventually collaborating with Christopher Rufo in May 2023 to bring the story to light. This exposure influenced the Texas legislature to pass SB 14, banning transgender interventions for minors in the state.
3. Legal Challenges and Indictment (June 2023 - 33:16)
Following their whistleblowing efforts, the Heim family faced severe legal repercussions. In June 2023, on the day of Dr. Heim's graduation from his surgical residency, federal agents arrived to investigate alleged HIPAA violations. Despite Dr. Heim's authorized access to medical records and his legitimate medical engagements, he was indicted on four felony counts of HIPAA violations—a move Andrea Heim describes as "absolutely insane" and "Kafkaesque."
"They charged him with four felony counts of HIPAA... carrying 10 years in prison." [32:57]
The indictment contained numerous errors, including typos and incorrect statutory references, leading to its revision. Nevertheless, the charges remained severe and ideologically driven, targeting Dr. Heim for his opposition to transgender care for children.
4. DOJ's Gag Order and Suppression Attempts (42:52 - 48:39)
As Dr. Heim actively communicated his stance and the injustices he faced through various media platforms, the DOJ sought to impose a gag order to silence him. During a hearing on December 3rd, 2024, prosecutors presented Dr. Heim's social media posts as evidence of "online bullying of prosecutors." The judge, seemingly sympathetic to the Heim family's plight, did not formally document the gag order, rendering it a "de facto" limitation on their free speech.
"The judge... imposed what we've been calling a non gag gag order or a de facto gag order. He told Eitan and his attorneys to essentially stop talking about the case in the media." [47:05]
Andrea Heim asserts that the gag order is unconstitutional and emphasizes her intention to continue speaking out despite these restrictions.
5. Personal and Familial Impact (39:48 - 42:31)
The legal battles have taken a significant toll on the Heim family. Andrea recounts the emotional strain of delivering their daughter via emergency C-section just hours before Dr. Heim had to attend a federal court hearing. The constant fear of imprisonment weighs heavily on her, especially as she navigates the challenges of new motherhood while advocating for her husband's rights.
"The best day of my life was the day that my baby daughter was born and my husband had to leave early because of this proceeding." [40:25]
6. Ongoing Legal Proceedings and Future Steps (33:18 - 53:32)
Dr. Heim was arraigned in Houston, pleading not guilty to all charges. The trial, initially set for August 2024, has been rescheduled to early February 2025. Throughout this period, the Heim family has faced mounting legal fees, draining their life savings. Andrea emphasizes the importance of public support and legal advocacy as they prepare for the upcoming trial.
"We're trying to get the word out of what happened in this case. People need to know that my husband's First Amendment rights are under attack." [53:32]
Andrea and Etan Heim continue to seek support through donations and prayers, hoping to secure the necessary resources for their legal defense and to raise awareness about the broader implications of transgender care practices for minors.
Conclusion
Episode 1113 of "Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey" provides a compelling narrative of whistleblowing, governmental overreach, and personal sacrifice. Andrea Heim's testimony sheds light on the alleged unethical and non-consensual medical procedures being performed on children, the subsequent legal retaliation by the DOJ, and the profound impact on her family's lives. This episode serves as a crucial platform for raising awareness and fostering dialogue on the intersection of healthcare, ethics, and governmental authority.
Notable Quotes
"The truth is most kids entertainment is designed to be addictive, make kids dependent upon screens..."
– Andrea Heim [00:00]
"Texas children's had an extensive transgender medicine program... children as young as 11 years old."
– Andrea Heim [04:29]
"They charged him with four felony counts of HIPAA... carrying 10 years in prison."
– Andrea Heim [32:57]
"They were listing Aon's posts, but they were listing a post from his attorneys... There was audible laughter in the courtroom."
– Andrea Heim [48:39]
"I think what happened with this gag order hearing is a travesty. I do think it's unconstitutional in my opinion."
– Andrea Heim [53:32]
Support and Further Information
Andrea Heim and her husband are seeking support through donations and prayers to continue their fight against what they describe as corrupt and unethical practices in transgender care for minors. Listeners are encouraged to support their cause via giftsandgo.com/texaswhistleblower.
Disclaimer: This summary is based on the transcript provided and aims to present the views and statements of Andrea Heim as discussed in the podcast episode. It does not constitute an endorsement of the claims made and encourages listeners to conduct their own research for a comprehensive understanding of the issues discussed.