The Federal Trade Commission and four states sued the East Dundee-based World Professional Association for Transgender Health Wednesday, in the latest push by President Donald Trump’s administration and others to limit gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The suit, filed in Northern Texas federal court, alleges WPATH made deceptive claims about gender-affirming care for minors and profited from it.
In the complaint, the FTC — along with Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas — asked a federal judge for a permanent injunction against WPATH for potential “future violations of the FTC Act,” and to award civil penalties and other financial awards to each of the states.
The suit follows an attempted investigation by the agency into WPATH. The group sued to block the probe, alleging the agency was violating its First Amendment rights. A federal judge in May ruled in favor of WPATH to temporarily block the probe from continuing.
WPATH said in a statement that a federal court has already ruled against the FTC over this when it blocked the investigation, and that the agency had “brought a similarly baseless actual complaint and has enlisted the administration’s go-to, obedient state attorneys general to help do its unlawful bidding.”
“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.
The FTC has also launched investigations into the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society over their guidelines on gender-affirming care, both of which also sued.
The lawsuit is part of a larger Trump administration push to label gender-affirming care as “harmful,” putting the government at odds with dozens of major medical organizations. The government’s push has led many hospitals across the nation, including in the Chicago area, to cut treatment for thousands of patients out of fear of reprisals from the federal government.
The lawsuit comes three months after a coalition of attorneys general nationwide, including Illinois attorney general Kwame Raoul, successfully sued the Trump administration over an attempted ban on gender affirming care for trans youth nationwide.
In March, a federal judge in Oregon ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t go through the proper administrative procedures when issuing a declaration last year warning doctors that they could be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid if they provided the treatments.
The Department of Justice has separately issued more than 20 subpoenas for patient data regarding their gender-affirming care, though no charges have been announced.
Leaders at the Department of Health and Human Services applauded the FTC’s move, pointing to an HHS review — which cited the lead researchers on a controversial Northwestern study on trans youth — that questioned WPATH standards. That report was sharply criticized by major medical groups and those who treat transgender young people as inaccurate.
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. involves developing a plan with medical experts and family members that includes talk therapy and can — but doesn’t always — involve puberty blockers or hormone treatment.
Fewer than 1 in 1,000 adolescents in the U.S. received either of those gender-affirming medications, according to a five-year study of those on commercial insurance released this year.
WPATH has established widely accepted medical standards for gender-affirming care for more than 50 years, the organization’s website notes, based on “established scientific standards, expert consensus and patient-centered values.”
In a statement WPATH said its guidelines call for care that is tailored to individual patients, rather than a “one size fits all” approach.
“Transgender and gender-diverse patients deserve the highest level of care from their medical professionals,” the group said, saying its standards are “designed to promote this through open dialogue and clear communication.”