FTC sues transgender care group, arguing it deceived parents and patients

POLITICO – Wednesday, June 17, 2026
By Simon J. Levien

The Federal Trade Commission is suing the leading transgender health care group in federal court. The agency argued on Wednesday that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health made “deceptive claims” in its health care guidelines for transgender children. The group’s members include psychiatrists, surgeons, pediatricians, endocrinologists and primary care doctors who work with transgender patients.

The FTC, like the Health Department, has been on a monthslong legal tear to clamp down on providers and hospitals that offer gender-affirming care. Gender-affirming care refers to medical interventions for minors experiencing distress that their bodies do not align with their gender identity.

“Medical organizations must follow the science, disclose conflicts and put patients first,” said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a news release praising the FTC’s action.

The agency alleged that WPATH’s trans care recommendations violate the FTC Act by misleading parents and patients about the necessity and efficacy of these treatments. The FTC filed its complaint in the federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, alongside several red states, which joined the suit: Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas.

“The FTC filed a lawsuit against WPATH alleging that the organization made false and unsubstantiated claims regarding the necessity, effectiveness and safety of puberty blockers, hormones and sex-change surgeries,” said Andrew Ferguson, the FTC chair, in a news release. “Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services.”

Many of America’s leading provider groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, strongly support gender-affirming care. Providers have argued that transgender care can save children’s lives.

“The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is not a medical provider and has no place interfering with the process of individualized medical decision-making,” WPATH said in a statement. It said that the agency’s claims were “baseless.”

The Trump administration has pointed to a British government review that found the evidence supporting gender-affirming care’s efficacy is weak, and produced its own study arguing the same. The administration supported Tennessee’s defense of its law barring gender-affirming care for minors in a Supreme Court case last year that Tennessee won 6-3.

The FTC probed WPATH alongside other physician organizations that drew up guidelines for gender-affirming care earlier this year. Then the provider groups — WPATH, the AAP and the Endocrine Society — sued the FTC, arguing in separate suits that the agency’s probe was retaliation and was a violation of their First Amendment rights.

Federal judges sided with the providers in the suits brought by WPATH and AAP, halting the FTC’s investigations. The Endocrine Society’s suit is still awaiting judgment.

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