The Department of Justice announced this week that it had subpoenaed more than 20 doctors and clinics that "mutilated children" with transgender medical procedures across the country.
Wednesday's brief announcement did not specify the doctors or medical centers that were subpoenaed, saying only the investigations included healthcare fraud and false statements.
"Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice," U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the statement.
The announcement came the same day that the Federal Trade Commission held an all-day workshop on the dangers of gender transition care, NBC News reported. The panel included more than a dozen speakers, from people who received care and now regret it to doctors and psychologists who laid out the dangers of such care to minors.
Miriam Grossman, a child psychologist, rebutted the common claim of being "born in the wrong body."
"There is no objective evidence of being born in the wrong body, and saying so misleads and takes advantage of consumers, and it impacts their medical decisions," Grossman said, according to the report.
The workshop was met with resistance by FTC staffers, Reuters reported July 2. In a letter to members of Congress seen by Reuters, the staffers asserted the workshop overstepped the FTC's consumer-protection authority and "would chart new territory for the Commission by prying into confidential doctor-patient consultations."
"Simply put, in our judgment, this is not the FTC's lane," the staffers wrote.
However, in announcing the workshop, the FTC said that consumer-protection authority could apply if "medical professionals or others omitted warnings about the risks or made false or unsupported claims about the benefits and effectiveness of gender-affirming care for minors."
FTC spokesperson Joe Simonson said in a statement that "staff who oppose a workshop designed to better understand the concerns of tens of millions of parents, children, and medical professionals are free to resign."
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.