The Federal Trade Commission along with the states of Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas, filed suit yesterday against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) alleging violations of federal and state fraud and consumer protection laws. WPATH develops Standards of Care (SOC) for pediatric medical gender transitioning. Its SOC are relied upon by clinicians and insurance companies. The 123-page complaint (full text) in Federal Trade Commission v. World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Inc., (ND TX, filed 6/17/2026), alleges in part:
9. In addition to representing that the SOC itself, and the life-altering surgeries it recommends, reflect expert consensus and high-quality evidence, WPATH represents in the SOC that these and other transition services are medically necessary and effective at preventing suicide in children, that puberty blockers are fully reversible, that cross-sex hormones improve mental health, and that breast amputations are safe, effective, and consistently and directly increase children’s health-related quality of life....
14. The success of WPATH’s systematic efforts to expand eligibility for transition services to children in order to profit its members is difficult to overstate. Through the SOC and its other efforts, WPATH has created and currently sustains a lucrative industry of pediatric medical transition services. Over roughly the past two decades, the number of pediatric medical transition providers has multiplied rapidly. The first pediatric medical transition clinic in the United States opened in 2007. By 2015, there were at least forty-one pediatric medical transition clinics across the United States, many embedded within major children’s hospitals and academic medical centers. Between 2017 and 2021, the number of children who were diagnosed yearly with distress about their sex traits in the U.S. nearly tripled from around 15,000 in 2017 to about 42,000 in 2021....
18. WPATH falsely asserts that its recommendations are the result of rigorous scientific procedures and expert consensus, even though WPATH disregarded established guideline‑development standards, ignored the results of its own evidence reviews, and removed age limits in response to external pressure rather than scientific evidence....
The FTC issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit. AP reports on the lawsuit.
