The FTC alleges in the new lawsuit that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health provided the means for healthcare providers to make false and unsubstantiated claims to patients and their parents for the purposes of selling gender transition medicine procedures and treatments.WPATH’s Standards of Care document provides clinicians, including surgeons, endocrinologists, and pediatricians, with guidelines for providing minors with gender dysphoria puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, as well as invasive surgeries, including vaginoplasty and mastectomy.
“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 press release on Wednesday.
“Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services,” Ferguson said. “For decades, the FTC has taken action against entities that make deceptive and unsubstantiated health-related claims.”
Joe Simonson, director of public affairs for the FTC, told reporters that the organization intentionally “deceived parents and children of the medical and scientific basis for such services” in order to ensure that such procedures would be covered by insurance.
