Federal Trade Commission Sues Trans Group Charging They 'Deceived Many' Families

The Federal Trade Commission is suing the world's leading transgender medical association for alleged deceptive practices when it comes to minors.  

The FTC, along with the states of Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas, filed a lawsuit against WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

The FTC accuses WPATH of pushing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery on minors, saying WPATH "deceived many consumers into believing that its treatment guidelines are based on strong evidence."

Kurt Miceli, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Do No Harm, a medical organization whose mission includes protecting children from the harms of gender ideology, told CBN News their organization supports the FTC's move.

"We applaud the FTC and the four states that have taken WPATH in this regard," he said. "This lawsuit is critically important to exposing the deception that WPATH has had in the world of pediatric gender dysphoria."

The FTC hopes to stop WPATH from publishing its guidelines, which doctors regularly consult when counseling parents of troubled children. Critics say those guidelines are full of errors.

"You just look at some of the egregious misconduct that they had in creating those standards," Dr. Miceli said, "what you realize is that they suppressed systematic reviews that they commissioned. They had significant conflicts of interest in the drafting of that document."

For example, according to the lawsuit, doctors are telling parents their children will commit suicide if they're not allowed to transition.

"This claim that transitioning someone with puberty blockers and hormones and surgeries will reduce suicide is just not true. The evidence does not show it to be the case. And this is unfortunately one of those false claims that WPATH has made and that clinicians have taken hold of," Dr. Miceli said. "What we should be doing is supporting these children with appropriate cognitive behavioral therapy, other psychological interventions that can help them build resilience to manage the conflict that they might be dealing with, with their gender distress and certainly and importantly, treating those other comorbid psychiatric illnesses that they're facing."

The FTC lawsuit references tragic stories of young detransitioners. Chloe Cole, whose breasts were removed when she tried to become a boy during her teen years and has now detransitioned, testified at a congressional hearing earlier this month.

"The central thesis that attempts to justify child transitioning is, 'transition your daughter, or bury her,'" Cole said. "That's the lie my parents were told and every parent of a trans-identified child I know was told the same thing."

WPATH responded to the FTC complaint by issuing a statement.  "The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is not a medical provider and has no place interfering with the process of individualized medical decision-making, and the FTC also does not have any jurisdiction over WPATH," the statement said.

The FTC complaint is the latest in a string of recent legal moves opposing transgender procedures being done on minors.

The Justice Department is investigating at least 20 children's hospitals nationwide for alleged wrongdoing involving transgender procedures on minors. So far, two of those hospitals, Texas Children's and Cleveland Clinic, have settled, promising to end the practice and provide care for detransitioners.

In New York, 22-year-old Fox Varian won a $2 million malpractice verdict after getting a double mastectomy at age 16 that she later regretted.