Twenty Republican attorneys general are investigating the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for potential violations of state consumer protections over its gender-affirming care for minors.
The letter, led by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, says the AAP “tells physicians, the public, and parents and their children that puberty blockers used to treat adolescents with gender dysphoria are ‘reversible.'”
“This statement is misleading and deceptive,” the attorney generals wrote. “It is beyond medical debate that puberty blockers are not fully reversible but instead come with serious long-term consequences.”
The attorney generals state that it is “abusive” to “treat a child with biologically altering drugs that have an unknown physiological trajectory and end point.” They note that “it is also inhumane to endorse such experimentation without a confident safety profile, especially if more times than not, it proves to be medically necessary.”
Furthermore, the claim that puberty blockers are “reversible” is “scientifically unsupported and contradicts what is medically known.” The AGs noted that they are “alarmed” by the claim because it “raises questions under most state consumer protection laws.”
Idaho’s law, for example, prohibits “[e]engaging in any act or practice that is otherwise misleading, false, or deceptive to the consumer,” the letter says. “Most other states likewise prohibit making statements to consumers that are false, misleading, or deceptive.”
The letter requests that the AAP substantiate its claims regarding gender dysphoria.
Attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah signed the letter, as well as the Arizona Senate President and the Arizona House Speaker.
Labrador said in a statement, “It is shameful the most basic tenet of medicine – do no harm – has been abandoned by professional associations when politically pressured.”
“These organizations are sacrificing the health and well-being of children with medically unproven treatments that leave a wake of permanent damage. Children with gender dysphoria need and deserve love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality,” he stated. “Parents should be able to trust that a doctor’s medical guidance isn’t just the latest talking point from a dangerous and discredited activist agenda.”
