South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson backs Trump executive order ending federal funding for gender transitions for kids

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced today he’s joined a 23-state coalition filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting President Trump’s Executive Order, Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation. 

“South Carolina stands with President Trump to protect our children from irreversible medical procedures driven more by politics than science,” said Attorney General Wilson. “The evidence is clear: WPATH’s so-called ‘Standards of Care’ are not the gold standard they claim to be. They were crafted to push a legal and political agenda, not to reflect sound medical practice. We cannot allow federal funds to support turning our children into guinea pigs for the Left’s political agenda.”  

This order prohibits the use of federal dollars going towards gender transitioning procedures for minors, a policy now being challenged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The brief supported by South Carolina urges the court to uphold the executive order by rejecting claims that rely on flawed and politically charged medical guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). 

The amicus brief argues that WPATH’s Standards of Care Version 8 lacks scientific integrity. Key points include: 

• WPATH tailored its guidelines to advance political and legal goals, including influencing lawsuits, rather than adhering to evidence-based medicine.
• Political pressure, notably from former Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine and the American Academy of Pediatrics, led WPATH to alter treatment recommendations, such as removing age minimums for procedures, without scientific justification.
• WPATH failed to manage conflicts of interest among its authors, suppressed systematic evidence reviews showing little support for pediatric interventions, and misused the GRADE framework to issue strong recommendations despite weak evidence.

The coalition includes attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Arizona legislative leaders. 

Attorney General Wilson and his counterparts urge the court to deny the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, affirming the executive order as a necessary protection for America’s youth. 

The full brief is available for review here.