HHS to WPATH, the AMA and the AAP: 10 days to show your evidence for sex-rejecting procedures on kids, and say what you'll change

The medical groups that wrote the playbook for sex-rejecting procedures on children are out of time to dodge.

On October 14, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent what it calls a final request to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the Endocrine Society and others, according to the HHS announcement. Bloomberg Law reports that six groups received letters, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Three questions, 10 business days

Each organization has to put in writing:

• its current position on sex-rejecting procedures for minors,
• any planned revisions to its guidance, and
• a timeline for those changes.

HHS expects a written response within 10 business days. The department says it already asked these groups once for a substantive answer. This is the follow-up, and HHS is calling it final.

"When medical organizations set standards that shape the care of children, they have a responsibility to explain the evidence behind those standards," said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "HHS has asked these organizations for clear answers about their current positions, the evidence supporting their guidance, and whether they intend to change it. Parents and clinicians deserve transparency, and we expect these organizations to provide it."

No more hiding behind "standards of care"

For years, these groups' guidelines were the trump card. School boards, judges, legislators and insurers were told to defer to "the experts." Now the experts are being asked to show their work, in writing, on a deadline.

The Washington Examiner calls the letters an escalation in the administration's push to hold medical institutions accountable. According to Bloomberg Law, the letters don't spell out consequences for groups that ignore the deadline.

Part of a bigger push

This isn't a one-off. HHS has already:

• moved to bar hospitals in Medicare and Medicaid from performing these procedures on children,
• moved to ban federal Medicaid and CHIP funding for them,
• exposed potentially fraudulent insurance coding tied to sex-rejecting procedures on minors, and
• released research on ideological influences behind support for these practices.

"Organizations that set standards of care and medical guidelines for children and shape accepted medical practice have a responsibility to answer for the consequences of their guidance," HHS said. "The Trump Administration will make sure they do."

The clock is running. In two weeks, we'll know which of America's biggest medical groups can defend what they've been telling parents, and which ones can't.