The Federal Trade Commission and four states - Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas - have sued the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), alleging the group made deceptive claims about gender-affirming care for minors and that its members profited from those claims. This is the latest move by the Trump administration and allies to limit such care, because nothing says 'protecting children' like a coordinated legal attack on medical guidelines.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson took to X to declare, 'Parents have a right to make informed decisions about their children’s health. The FTC will not allow parents and children to be deceived by medical organizations and providers who are prioritizing profit over children’s health and safety.' WPATH, meanwhile, countered that its guidelines call for 'care that is tailored to individual patients, rather than a one size fits all approach' - which, one might note, is exactly what informed consent looks like.
The lawsuit follows an FTC investigation that WPATH previously sued to block, arguing the agency violated its First Amendment rights. A federal judge in May temporarily halted that investigation. The FTC has also launched probes into the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society over their gender-affirming care guidelines; both groups have also sued. WPATH, which has established widely-accepted medical standards for gender-affirming care for over 50 years based on 'established scientific standards, expert consensus and patient-centered values,' noted in a statement that a federal court had already ruled against the FTC once. 'WPATH is in a strong position to prove that the FTC is acting out of pure retaliation as part of the federal government’s relentless and targeted campaign to undermine gender-affirming care by attacking the First Amendment rights and the independence of professional medical organizations,' the statement said. 'We expect the same result when we oppose this latest attack on WPATH and its mission to promote evidence-informed care and guidance for doctors and their patients.'