Some staff members at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have raised concerns about a planned workshop by the agency on what it calls the dangers of gender-transition medical care for youth, saying it oversteps the FTC's consumer-protection authority, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The workshop "would chart new territory for the Commission by prying into confidential doctor-patient consultations," the group of staff wrote in an anonymous statement of concern sent to members of Congress.
"Simply put, in our judgment, this is not the FTC’s lane," they said. The workshop is part of a larger campaign to curtail trans care and rights during President Donald Trump's second term.
Trump issued orders in his first days in office stating the U.S. government does not recognize gender identity apart from "an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female" and cutting funding for gender care for youth. That policy faces a court challenge.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, a Republican who was appointed to the Commission by former President Joe Biden and named its chair by Trump in January, has sought to use the FTC's antitrust and consumer-protection authority to tackle conservative issues, such as perceived online censorship.
Gender transition treatments, often called gender-affirming care, can include puberty-blocking drugs, hormones and sometimes surgery. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said that gender care can improve mental health for minors with gender dysphoria, and the organization opposed policymakers interfering in the doctor-patient relationship.
Still, conservative lawmakers in 25 states have passed laws restricting minors from receiving the treatments.
The FTC has broad consumer-protection authority to bring enforcement actions against unfair or deceptive business practices. In announcing the workshop, the FTC said that 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."
The theory would intrude on the doctor-patient relationship and risk politicizing the agency's work, the letter said. The letter called on Ferguson to cancel the event, or alternatively to open a 60-day public comment period for the commission to hear a broader range of views.
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.”