The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing a prominent transgender healthcare group for allegedly making false and deceptive claims that misled parents about the risks of transgender medical interventions for children — an issue U.S. Catholic bishops urged them to investigate.

In the complaint, the FTC alleges the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) disregarded evidence and made unsubstantiated claims about cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries that alter “sex traits” to feminize boys and masculinize girls.

Part of the complaint focuses on WPATH’s standards of care guidelines for children, which do not set minimum age suggestions for most services. Some surgical interventions include chest surgery, which removes the healthy breasts of girls or adds prosthetic breasts onto boys, and sterilizing surgery on reproductive organs to make the person resemble the opposite sex.

The FTC alleges WPATH’s avoidance of recommended age minimums was based on external pressure, including from former President Joe Biden’s administration. It alleges WPATH ignored its own reviews of scientific evidence and falsely asserted its final recommendations were based on “rigorous scientific procedures and expert consensus.”

In the complaint, the FTC points to email exchanges that were unveiled in court documents in 2024. They show that, in 2021, WPATH’s original draft guidance for children included suggested age minimums for certain procedures, but they were...

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