Federal Trade Commission launches lawsuit against transgender medical body

FORT WORTH, Texas (CN) — The Federal Trade Commission accused a major transgender medical organization on Wednesday of misleading parents and children about the effectiveness and risks of gender-affirming medical treatments for minors.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, or WPATH, is a non-profit organization that sets international standards for medical care for transgender individuals.

In a complaint filed in the Fort Worth division of the Northern District of Texas, the FTC — along with the attorneys general of Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas — says WPATH misrepresented the safety and efficacy of pediatric gender-affirming treatments in order to increase profits for its member clinicians.

In doing so, the plaintiffs claim, the organization has violated the FTC Act as well as state consumer protection laws.

“Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services. For decades, the FTC has taken action against entities that make deceptive and unsubstantiated health-related claims. The complaint filed today reflects that same long-standing mandate: when an entity makes a claim about a medical treatment, the claim must be truthful, evidence-based and not misleading,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.

The FTC accuses WPATH of falsely representing that its standards are based on scientific evidence and medical consensus and of suppressing contradictory evidence. The commission claims the organization downplays the risks of treatments like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender-affirming surgeries and falsely represents that such treatments reduce suicide risk for minors.

In a statement responding to the lawsuit, WPATH accused the FTC of “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 U.S. Federal Trade Commission is not a medical provider and has no place interfering with the process of individualized medical decision-making,” the organization said. “The FTC also does not have any jurisdiction over WPATH and its noncommercial speech. The state claims have similar factual and legal flaws.”

WPATH points to a prior court ruling last month in which Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction blocking a demand by the FTC for WPATH to turn over documents as part of an investigation.

The Barack Obama appointee found that WPATH was likely to succeed in its claim that the FTC was retaliating against it for First Amendment-protected speech.

“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,” WPATH said in its statement.