(NewsNation) — Journalist Michael Shellenberger helped release files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health to the public. The group sets guidelines for gender-affirming health care but has come under fire from critics.
Shellenberger told NewsNation he can’t reveal exactly how he received video footage of what appear to be online meetings but said the footage is authentic.
“I think what’s so significant here is that we have WPATH members, practitioners and leaders acknowledging that they’re not getting informed consent from the children, adolescents and vulnerable adults on whom these procedures are being performed,” Shellenberger said on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
The footage includes debates between practitioners over explaining care to people who may not fully understand the science and how to treat trans youth who also have mental health challenges.
Shellenberger called it a breach of ethics. One clip in the footage referenced someone trying to explain things to a person who had not taken high school biology, though it was unclear if that was a specific case or something that might affect more patients.
Read the full report from NewsNation.
Multiple states have passed laws to restrict gender-affirming care for minors as the issue has become a political hot topic.
“Here’s a big debate over how many or what percentage of folks that go through what’s called gender medicine will end up regretting it or seek to so-called detransition,” Shellenberger said.
Studies suggest that fewer than 1% of people who undergo such care regret it later.
Shellenberger said that he believes the footage shows WPATH is not making science-based decisions.
“There’s not the kind of peer-reviewed control group, long-term studies that you would expect to see from some other form of very radical surgery and medicine,” he said.
