FTC Demands Accountability for Gender Affirming Care

The United States has witnessed the most unethical and bizarre treatments performed by the medical community than have possibly ever before occurred: the practice of gender affirming care. Doctors, counselors, and even parents have swallowed the propaganda (and even propagated it) for underage children. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finally stepped up and is conducting an inquiry to determine whether these practices should be continued. Its approach is focusing on whether “informed consent,” a fundamental factor in medical practice, is being followed:

‘The FTC seeks to evaluate whether consumers (in particular, minors) have been harmed and whether medical professionals or others may have violated Sections 5 and 12 of the FTC Act by failing to disclose material risks associated with ‘gender-affirming care’ or making false or unsubstantiated claims about the benefits or effectiveness of ‘gender-affirming care,’ the FTC wrote.

These practices claim that it is possible for young people to have been born into a body, male or female, that does not comport with their experience of their gender. As a result, medical treatments are being used to mutilate their bodies, or provide hormone therapy to these young people, sometimes with long-term and irreversible results. The far Left insists this treatment is legitimate:

For its entire existence, what far-left activists call ‘gender-affirming care,’ which is really the idea that one can medically change their sex and somehow solve their mental health issues, has been based on very little scientific evidence and almost entirely on ideology. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) completed its systematic review of the evidence for efficacy of the interventions in May, only to find that there is essentially zero evidence it is safe or effective.

This latest inquiry is part of an investigation that the FTC began this month:

On July 9, 2025, the FTC hosted a workshop on unfair or deceptive trade practices in ‘gender-affirming care” for minors. The FTC heard testimony from doctors, medical ethicists, whistleblowers, detransitioners, and parents of detransitioners. That testimony indicated that practitioners of ‘gender-affirming care’ may be actively deceiving consumers. Against this backdrop, the FTC seeks to evaluate whether consumers (in particular, minors) have been harmed and whether medical professionals or others may have violated Sections 5 and 12 of the FTC Act by failing to disclose material risks associated with ‘gender-affirming care’ or making false or unsubstantiated claims about the benefits or effectiveness of ‘gender-affirming care.’ The FTC has a long history of bringing enforcement actions in this area and is uniquely positioned to investigate this potentially unlawful activity.

The Supreme Court case, Skrmetti v. United States, affirmed the constitutionality of Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, a law that prohibits GAC for minors; several other states have followed in Tennessee’s footsteps. The time has arrived for the issue to be tackled on a national level.

Now the FTC is taking the issue even further through a nationwide online inquiry:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) invites public comment to better understand how consumers may have been exposed to false or unsupported claims about ‘gender-affirming care’ (GAC), especially as it relates to minors, and to gauge the harms consumers may be experiencing. Proponents of GAC, including healthcare and medical institutions, have long touted the benefits of this type of care, including for minors. Over time, however, reporting by multiple news outlets, personal accounts by parents and detransitioners, disclosures by whistleblowers, independent reviews and studies, and even information and communications from institutions promoting these practices.

This FTC inquiry is long overdue. Based on the results they garner, let’s hope that we can finally protect our children from these perverted and unethical practitioners.

[originally published in American Thinker]