The Federal Trade Commission is requesting public comment on so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors.
The inquiry seeks “to better understand how consumers may have been exposed to false or unsupported claims about ‘gender-affirming care’, especially as it relates to minors.” The FTC will accept “comment on any issues or concerns,” including “written data, advertisements, social media posts, disclosures, or empirical research,” a press release said.
The FTC is investigating whether minors and consumers have been harmed by transgender medical procedures and if medical professionals “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 request for public comment is the latest in the FTC’s campaign against the transgender medical industry.
In May, The Daily Wire first reported on an FTC memo about a workshop on “gender-affirming care.” The FTC, an agency tasked with protecting American consumers, often holds workshops before initiating legal action against an industry.
“Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, the FTC is provided broad authority to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive trade acts and practices,” the memo said. “There is now considerable reason to believe that the doctors and medical providers pushing [gender-affirming care] on minors are knowingly deceiving parents by exaggerating [gender-affirming care’s] ‘benefits’ and downplaying its harmful side effects.”
The agency held the workshop on July 9 and featured academics, commentators, detransitioners, parents, and doctors, The Daily Wire reported.
“The issue of gender medicine has shattered political boundaries,” said Texas Children’s whistleblower Vanessa Sivadge. “Not because of ideology, but because of conscience. This is not a partisan battle, but a battle of good and evil.”
Detransitioner Claire Abernathy said medical professionals encouraged her to undergo transgender surgeries when she was too young to get a tattoo, too young to drive, and hadn’t even learned algebra.
“It’s not health care,” she said, “it’s blatant consumer fraud.”
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who moderated the panel, told the detransitioners and survivors, “The FTC hears you, we hear all of you, and we want to understand how the law is being broken.”
Department of Justice Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle said the DOJ has issued almost 20 subpoenas against clinics that are engaged in transgender transition attempts. The Justice Department’s investigations include health care fraud, false statements, and more.
Mizelle asked Americans to come forward if they could provide information about deceptive practices in the transgender medicine industry.
Both the workshop and the request for comment build on President Donald Trump’s executive order ending the federal government’s support for so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors. The FTC memo about the workshop noted that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently called transgender procedures “in truth still experimental.”
Before being selected for the position, Ferguson reportedly pitched Trump on using the agency to fight “against the trans agenda” before he was selected for the post, according to a document obtained by Punchbowl News in December 2024.
At the workshop, Ferguson said he doesn’t care about backlash from Democrats over the FTC’s action against transgender medical procedures.
“If there is this material deception going on in this market, it is picking on the most vulnerable human beings in America at the worst possible moment of their lives and brutalizing them,” Ferguson said. “And frankly, the ability of people to turn away from this and say ‘no action should be taken’ boggles my mind. So at the end of the day, it is the right thing to do.”
The public has until September 26 to submit comments at Regulations.gov. Comments will be posted once submitted.
