FTC, four state AGs sue transgender health group over care standards

The federal government is suing an infamous transgender medical activist group and alleging it has deceived the public about the harms of child sex changes to make a profit.

The Federal Trade Commission announced it’s suing the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) over allegations the group made “false and unsubstantiated claims” that made it possible for medical providers to “sell” child sex-change interventions to the public, according to a press release .

“Today, the FTC filed a lawsuit against WPATH alleging that the organization made false and unsubstantiated claims regarding the necessity, effectiveness, and safety of puberty blockers, hormones and sex-change surgeries,” said FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson in a press release. “Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services.”

Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas are also named plaintiffs in the lawsuit , which alleges WPATH has “deceived many consumers” into believing its highly influential medical guidance, called the Standards of Care version 8 (SOC-8), was based on strong scientific evidence. Health care systems, governments, and health insurers have used the SOC-8 to claim pediatric medical transition services are “medically necessary,” and fueled the rapid growth of the child sex-change industry, while WPATH failed to properly disclose the harms of child sex-change interventions.

“The success of WPATH’s systematic efforts to expand eligibility for transition services to children in order to profit its members is difficult to overstate. Through the SOC and its other efforts, WPATH has created and currently sustains a lucrative industry of pediatric medical transition services,” states the lawsuit. “Between 2017 and 2021, the number of children who were diagnosed yearly with distress about their sex traits in the U.S. nearly tripled from around 15,000 in 2017 to about 42,000 in 2021.”

The lawsuit notes that WPATH’s membership is predominantly made up of healthcare providers who profit from gender-confused children receiving harmful sex-change interventions.

Kurt Miceli, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Do No Harm, told The Daily Wire he applauds the action taken by Chairman Ferguson.

“We applaud Chairman Ferguson for taking decisive action against the engine of the transgender industrial machine, WPATH,” Miceli told The Daily Wire. “By falsely portraying pediatric gender transition as a lifesaving intervention, this activist organization promoted a narrative that irreversible, life-altering procedures were the only viable option for gender-confused children.”

WPATH’s recommendations that children receive irreversible medical interventions are based on low-quality scientific evidence and deceptive practices, according to the lawsuit. WPATH disregarded scientific protocols, was influenced by politics, and had the goal of ensuring child sex-change procedures would be covered by health insurance plans while crafting its medical guidance, according to the lawsuit. Despite these practices, the organization continued to promote itself as the “de facto authority” on transgender medicine.

“WPATH’s representations have further deceived many consumers into believing that its treatment guidelines are based on strong evidence derived from scientific methods,” the lawsuit states. “WPATH crafted the SOC with the explicit goal of guaranteeing that insurers would classify medical transition services as medically necessary and therefore covered by their insurance plans.”

The 123-page lawsuit references several declarations from detransitioners who have been physically harmed by gender medicine and continue to live with the physical and emotional pain caused by gender medicine.

“WPATH reinforced that narrative by removing nearly all age limits on sex rejecting surgeries for minors, suppressing the systematic evidence reviews it had commissioned, and failing to disclose adverse side effects associated with certain pediatric medical transition interventions,” Miceli told The Daily Wire. “Now, WPATH will answer for its deception in court. Let this be a lesson to the remaining medical associations propping up the transgender industry: you will be held accountable.”