Three of the country’s top medical associations have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to “investigate and prosecute” the parents and organizations who take issue with doctors and hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children.
In a letter sent Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the Children’s Hospital Association urge Garland to “take swift action” against those who allegedly target and threaten children’s hospitals and physicians who provide “evidence-based gender-affirming” care for minors.
“We cannot stand by as threats of violence against our members and their patients proliferate with little consequence,” American Academy of Pediatrics President Moira Szilagyi said in a statement. “We call on the Department of Justice to investigate these attacks and social media platforms to reduce the spread of the misinformation enabling them.”
The three medical organizations collectively represent more than 270,000 doctors and more than 220 children’s hospitals across the nation. The letter pointed out that health care personnel have encountered “increased threats via social media” for providing transgender care and that “harassing emails, phone calls and protestors” have created “elevated and justifiable fear among families, patients and staff.”
“These coordinated attacks threaten federally protected rights to health care for patients and their families,” the organizations write. “The attacks are rooted in an intentional campaign of disinformation, where a few high-profile users on social media share false and misleading information targeting individual physicians and hospitals, resulting in a rapid escalation of threats, harassment, and disruption of care across multiple jurisdictions.”
The letter comes amid increased awareness by the public about transgender surgeries for children, raised by online activists.
The popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok reported in August that Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. performs transgender surgeries on minors, including those younger than 16.
The medical organizations said they have also asked Big Tech social media companies “to do more to prevent this practice on digital platforms.”
Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, a University of Alabama pediatrics professor who provides gender-affirming care to trans youth in Alabama, told The 19th that it’s a “misperception that surgeries are a standard part” of transgender care for children.
“Nowhere is it within the standard of care to perform genital surgery for gender affirmation for gender dysphoria on children or minors,” she said. According to Ladinsky, the only surgery for trans youth that can take place under accepted medical guidelines is top surgery (mastectomy) for “transmasculine minors.”
City Journal investigative reporter Christopher Rufo said that the medical organizations’ letter is par for the course under President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.
“This is now the Left’s playbook: Last year, the National School Board Association, Department of Justice, and F.B.I. worked together to label parents who opposed critical race theory’ domestic terrorists,’” Rufo tweeted Monday. “They want to stifle dissent, suppress speech, and criminalize opposition.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.