AAP: TURNING PEDIATRIC CARE INTO A HARMFUL POLITICAL PIPELINE
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) markets itself as a professional membership group “to serve as an independent forum to address children’s health needs.” With 67,000 members, the group’s policy guidance impacts widely accepted protocols and coverage expectations that heavily influence institutions across the country.
However, the AAP has a long track record of pushing policies that favor a political agenda over the well-being of children, such as transgender ideology and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, while using federal funding to do it. While major medical organizations have retracted recommendations for irreversible gender interventions for minors, citing mounting evidence of risks and lack of long-term efficacy, the AAP has stubbornly refused to update its guidance.
AAP IGNORING EVIDENCE
Recently, The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) walked back its guidance on transgender care for kids and disavowed sex change procedures for children, citing insufficient evidence and potential irreversible harms like infertility, bone density loss, and neurocognitive impacts. Similarly, the American Medical Association (AMA) has exercised more caution in its guidance for transgender care for kids, although it still supports some transgender treatments for minors. The AAP continues to ignore mounting evidence, including a recent 2025 report from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which concluded that medical and surgical gender-affirming interventions for minors lack proven benefit, carry significant risks, and should be replaced by psychotherapy‑first, non-medical approaches. The AAP doubled down at the 2025 Leadership Conference, with 98 percent of members voting to make federal protection and payment for so-called “gender-affirming care” their top resolution.
Source: AAP News
This push for transgender ideology for kids can be found all over its website. A publication from the AAP titled Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents recommends that “that youth who identify as TGD [transgender and gender diverse ] have access to comprehensive, gender-affirming, and developmentally appropriate health care…” which include surgical affirmation. Additionally, a blog on AAP’s website declares, “When youth are not affirmed, there is a significant increase in depression, anxiety, risky behaviors, and suicide.” Research against these claims is exactly what has made other countries and professional organizations pause these recommendations.
The AAP also promotes an Adolescent Health Care Toolkit designed for pediatricians to conduct private discussions with teens on sensitive topics like sexual health, LGBTQ+ issues, and gender identity, often bypassing parental involvement in ways that can expose children to risky advice without family oversight.
In a video titled “Sexual Health History,” a pediatrician assures a teen patient that their discussion is confidential and will be kept from their parents. The doctor then delves into details about sexual partners, specific acts, protection against pregnancy and STIs, past testing, and offers praise for using condoms “most of the time.” The session ends with prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraception, all without family input.
In the video, “Caring for LGBTQ Youth” it begins with a confidentiality pledge before exploring a teen’s relationship with a transgender partner, including questions on sexual activity, comfort levels, and birth control methods like emergency options, all without parental oversight.
The AAP also promotes for outside advocacy infrastructure that reinforces its gender agenda. On its own website, it highlights groups such as The Trevor Project, which hosts the online chat platform TrevorSpace, which was exposed for allowing adults to chat with vulnerable children without the knowledge or consent of their parents. It also encourages involvement in Gender and Sexuality Alliance groups, and seek providers who offer “LGBTQIA+ affirming care.”
Source: thetrevorproject.org
The AAP’s aggressive push for DEI initiatives further exemplifies how it prioritizes ideological agendas over evidence-based pediatric care, stating “The AAP is committed to using policy, advocacy and education to encourage inclusivity and cultural effectiveness for all.”
The CEO Mark Del Monte proudly touts AAP’s DEI efforts: “We’ve seen policies and legislation take us backwards, limiting access to care, weakening the social safety net, undermining our commitment to EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion)…” The group also created a “Staff Diversity and Inclusion Council,” which was formed to provide input on ideas and advocate for diversity and inclusion initiatives that benefit the AAP workforce.
The AAP introduced its Equity Agenda in 2020 to “guide the Academy’s efforts to achieve health equity and actualize our goals to become an equitable, diverse, and inclusive organization.” Across four domains, Internal Processes, Education and Clinical Practice, Workforce and Leadership, Policy and Advocacy. Collectively, the AAP wants to integrate equity mandates into organizational operations, pediatrician training, leadership selection, and policy creation.
Source: aap.org
The AAP received Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants to promote “equity-based healthcare.” The chief health equity officer and lead author of the Academy’s policy statement, “Eliminating Race-Based Medicine, Joseph Wright stated, “The AAP and its supporters are proud to lead the way toward achieving a vital goal – to ensure that each child receive equitable, affirming, and anti-racist pediatric health care.”
TAXPAYERS DOLLARS ARE FUNDING AAP
The AAP has long benefited from substantial federal funding, receiving an allocated $19 Million in grants from HHS in FY2025 alone. Under the Trump Administration, HHS terminated seven multimillion-dollar grants to the AAP, citing misalignment with departmental priorities in AAP’s materials. While a federal judge ordered restoration of nearly $12 million in January 2026 amid ongoing litigation, AAP’s entanglement with federal dollars continues to expose the organizations’ resistance against accountability and aggressive promotion of a political agenda.
WHO’S BEHIND AAP?
AAP’s leadership is dominated by figures with ties to progressive politics and advocacy for transgender interventions, often prioritizing ideology over scientific caution. Mark Del Monte, a key executive, endorsed “Trans Day of Visibility” in 2022 by flying the transgender flag at AAP headquarters. In the same year, Del Monte endorsed a lecture about eliminating “race-based” medicine and declared, “medicine has urgent work to do to overcome racism.”
Incoming President Terri McFadden (assuming the role in 2027) is also Medical Director and Board Director of Reach Out and Read’s Georgia branch. This organization promotes LGBTQ children’s books normalizing early transitions. In December 2021, McFadden supported DEI initiatives and reports detailing “how to support DEI officers and set them up for success.” In January 2021, McFadden echoed claims that “children are impacted by racism at an early age,” further embedding DEI narratives into AAP’s equity efforts.
Source: Bookshop.org
Source: Bookshop.org
Immediate Past President Susan J. Kressly (term ending 2026), labeled Trump-era restrictions on gender-affirming care a “baseless intrusion” and questioned an HHS report’s credibility. In June 2025, Kressly condemned the Supreme Court ruling that upheld Tennessee’s ban on using puberty blockers and hormones as gender interventions for minors, stating, “To be clear—regardless of today’s legal ruling—the science still supports gender-affirming care, children will still need it.” In May 2016, Kressly Pediatrics tweeted “By Age 3 Children Can Label Themselves As Either Boy Or Girl” and noted the label “doesn’t always match” their biological sex.
AAP’S LEGAL BATTLES AND DESPERATE COVER-UPS
The AAP’s leadership’s support for gender rejecting interventions has been under fire recently.
In September 2024, when 21 state Attorneys General, led by Idaho’s Raúl Labrador, wrote a letter to Kressly demanding the AAP disclose its gender dysphoria guidance and methodology. The letter claimed that the AAP’s guidance on transgender dysphoria was “based more on political pressure and agendas rather than medical efficacy and sound medical judgement,” highlighting that under Kressly’s leadership, the AAP was continuing to recommend puberty blockers “despite widespread retractions of the practice.” The state Attorneys General asserted the AAP was potentially “running afoul of consumer protection laws in most states,” by continuing to claim puberty blockers were “safe and reversible,” an assertion “not grounded in evidence.”
In December 2025, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit against the AAP, alongside the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Endocrine Society. The suit alleges these groups deliberately misled parents and the public about the safety and efficacy of gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries.
Source: @AGJamesUthmeier
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a 2026 probe into the AAP for possible false claims in promoting gender dysphoria treatments, prompting the AAP to file lawsuits alleging unconstitutional retaliation. The AAP continues to push a political agenda despite the mounting pushback from parents and public officials.
TIPS FOR PARENTS
OTHER NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
OP-ED FROM ALLEIGH MARRÉ BLASTS PEDIATRIC LEADERSHIP AS MEDICAL GROUPS PULL BACK: An op-ed authored by American Parents Coalition’s Executive Director Alleigh Marré argues the American Academy of Pediatrics refuses to revisit its stance on pediatric gender medicine even as major medical organizations signal retreat and scrutiny keeps stacking up. Read more here.
PARENTS GROUP VOWS TO ‘HOLD CONGRESS ACCOUNTABLE’ IF IT CAN’T DELIVER MEDICAL PRICE TRANSPARENCY: A new letter from American Parents Coalition urged Senate leadership to deliver real healthcare price transparency, including standardized upfront prices so families can actually shop and plan before care. Read more here.
EMAILS REVEAL BIDEN ADMIN CONSPIRED WITH TEACHERS UNION-TIED ORGS: Newly released emails detail that the Biden Admin colluded with teachers unions and left‑leaning parent and advocacy groups to shape a federal parent council, effectively stacking it with politically aligned interests. Read more here.
CALIFORNIA SUFFERS TRANS AGENDA LEGAL BLOW: A federal appeals court rejected California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s bid to narrow a Supreme Court order blocking enforcement of state guidance that kept schools from informing parents when their children identify as transgender, marking another legal setback for the state’s position in the Mirabelli v. Bonta case. Read more here.
OPED FROM ALLEIGH MARRÉ: REMOVING PARENTS HAS DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCES: A recent op‑ed from American Parents Coalition Exec. Dir. argues that when schools hide students’ gender transitions from parents, as in the case of Sage Blair and similar stories, it gravely endangers children and undermines parental rights, making the Supreme Court’s temporary block of California’s parental‑notification ban in Mirabelli v. Bonta a crucial step toward protecting families. Read more here.
Thanks for reading the latest edition of the American Parents Coalition’s The Lookout. If you have a troubling story to share about a school, doctor, company, or other institution working to usurp parents’ rights, please let us know by emailing us at outreach@americanparentscoalition.org.
