The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), together with the states of Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), alleging deceptive practices related to gender-affirming care for minors. The suit, filed in a federal court in Northern Texas, seeks a permanent injunction against WPATH for potential future violations of the FTC Act, as well as civil penalties and other financial awards for the states involved.
WPATH, based in East Dundee, Illinois, has been a longstanding authority on medical standards for transgender health, having developed widely recognized guidelines over the past five decades. The organization disputes the allegations, characterizing the FTC’s actions as retaliation tied to a broader federal campaign aimed at restricting gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Earlier this year, a federal judge temporarily blocked an FTC investigation into WPATH on grounds of First Amendment protections.
In a statement, WPATH criticized the lawsuit as part of "an unlawful bidding" by the federal government, accusing the FTC and participating states of collaboration aimed at undermining medical consensus and professional independence. The group emphasized that its care standards are designed to offer individualized, patient-centered treatment plans developed collaboratively with medical professionals and families.
The legal action forms part of a more extensive push by the Trump administration and allied state officials to challenge gender-affirming care, which they frame as harmful to minors. This campaign has also targeted other prominent medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society, both of which have responded with lawsuits disputing government interference in their clinical guidelines.
Critics of the lawsuit, including transgender youth advocates such as Asher McMaher, executive director of Trans Up Front Illinois, argue that the FTC’s claims rely on inaccurate or misleading information. McMaher challenged the assertion that children as young as eight receive gender-affirming surgeries, saying such claims are baseless and designed to sow fear among the public. “They want to peddle a story on behalf of the administration,” McMaher said, noting that medical care for transgender youth is administered by trained professionals in close consultation with families.
The case comes amid ongoing tensions following a coalition of attorneys general, including Illinois’s Kwame Raoul, successfully challenging an attempted federal ban on gender-affirming treatments for minors last year. A federal judge in Oregon ruled that the Health and Human Services Secretary at the time had not followed proper administrative procedures in issuing a warning that providers risked exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid if they offered gender-affirming care.
Department of Health and Human Services officials have expressed support for the FTC’s lawsuit, citing a recent HHS review that questioned WPATH’s standards. That review included references to research from Northwestern University, which has faced criticism from major medical groups and practitioners specializing in transgender health for its methodology and conclusions.
Gender-affirming care typically involves individualized approaches that can include talk therapy, and in some cases, medical interventions such as puberty blockers or hormone treatments. Studies indicate that fewer than 1 in 1,000 adolescents with commercial insurance in the United States receive such medications. The controversy underscores significant divisions over the medical treatment of transgender youth and the evolving role of federal and state governments in regulating clinical practice.