In a federal court over the summer, there was a significant event – a momentous event that as of yet, has been under the radar in many circles of the broader culture who don’t closely follow developments in gender medicine.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has essentially admitted that their acclaimed “Standards of Care, Version 8” (SOC-8) is not the definitive standard of care that it is conventionally treated as in its motion to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s lawsuit – co-sponsored by a group of states – dated July 28, 2022. In WPATH’s own words, they have merely been presenting SOC-8 as their free-speech opinion: a source to reference in a field which they now characterize as “medical and scientific uncertainty.”
Clinicians and systems who adhere to it – and treat it as the status quo – will “assume independent responsibility,” claims the filing.
It’s a big step back.
The plaintiffs’ bar can read directly from the official document.
Now hospitals that adopted the guidelines in whole; the insurers who accepted those standards for payment, and the medical boards all stand on equally shaky ground. The internal professional fear that kept dissenting doctors isolated now serves only to highlight the enormity of WPATH’s abdication of that risk. Those that follow the established – no, only now recognized by WPATH as debatable guidelines will be left holding the chart notes, the patient, the treatment history and a potentially ruinous legal battle.
Source: WPATH Just Told a Court Its “Standards of Care” Are Only an Opinion