(LifeSiteNews) — The American Parents Coalition (APC) asked Congress to investigate federal funding to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), saying that the organization has “abandoned its role as a scientific body, substituting political advocacy for evidence-based medicine, and openly defying President Donald Trump’s executive order on transgender medical interventions for children.”
In a letter sent to Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, APC said that AAP still receives federal funding despite the fact that AAP has “continued to recommend puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones as ‘reversible’ and ‘partially reversible’ treatments for minors, even as other medical reports highlight the harms of these (interventions) for children.”
“The AAP’s politicization extends across its institutional structure. Its CEO, Mark Del Monte, has declared that AAP will fight policies that limit access to (‘transition’ interventions) and undermine ‘equity, diversity and inclusion,’” APC executive director Alleigh Marré wrote.
She continued:
The organization created a “Staff Diversity and Inclusion Council,” launched a formal Equity Agenda in 2020, and promoted outside activist groups including The Trevor Project, which hosts TrevorSpace, a platform that has allowed adults to communicate with children without parental knowledge or consent.”
These kinds of actions seem like less of a pediatric medical society and more like an ideological advocacy operation using the credibility of medicine as cover for its political agenda.
“Among the most alarming actions we have seen is the AAP’s guidance that cuts parents out of their children’s healthcare,” declared Marré, who cited numerous examples of AAP training materials coaching healthcare providers on how to exclude parents from discussions with minors about sexual activity, “gender identity,” and emergency contraception.
AAP further trains its members on how to bypass parental involvement and intentionally withhold information from parents.
APC says that AAP receives millions of federal dollars and yet “has chosen to use its platform to publicly undermine a federal policy aimed at protecting children.”
In 2025, AAP received approximately $19 million in grants from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“President Trump has been unambiguous: the federal government will not fund or facilitate transgender medical interventions on children,” noted the letter, yet “The AAP’s response has been defiance, not reconsideration.”
Marré’s letter cited examples of increasing pressure being put on the AAP by state attorneys general:
The legal and regulatory consequences of the AAP’s conduct are mounting. In September 2024, 21 state Attorneys General wrote to President Kressly warning that the AAP’s guidance on gender dysphoria “is based more on political pressure and agendas rather than medical efficacy and sound medical judgement” and that continuing to describe puberty blockers as “safe and reversible” may run “afoul of consumer protection laws.”
In December 2025, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed suit against the AAP, WPATH, and the Endocrine Society, alleging they misled parents and the public about the safety and efficacy of these interventions.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics has made its priorities plain. It has chosen political advocacy over the wellbeing of children, and activist ideology over parental rights,” the letter concludes.
In its mission statement, APC says “we are determined to reclaim parental authority because we recognize that nothing should stand between a parent and their child – not the government, not our schools, not the medical establishment. Our organization wants to empower parents to determine how to raise their children and provide practical resources for doing so.”