Basics
- Pyrophore IFF: 🟨 Unclear
Detail
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) is a United States-based professional society for plastic and reconstructive surgeons. It is indexed in Pyrophore for reasons relating to its 2026 pivot toward opposing the scientific consensus on youth trans healthcare and supporting the Trump regime then in federal office in the United States.
Timeline
2025, May. ASPS’ Gender Surgery Task Force convenes for the first time (Berli et al, 2026, in Baum, 2026).
2026, February 2. Michael Costelloe, Executive Vice President of ASPS, sends the Gender Surgery Task Force a communication reading, in part:
Over the past several weeks, ASPS, along with a small number of other national medical societies, has been participating in an urgent, time-limited process initiated by a federal agency seeking clarification of medical society positions on this topic.1
2026, February 3. The ASPS Board issues a document, Position statement on gender surgery for children and adolescents (American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2026).
On the same day, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) press office issues a press release supporting the ASPS statement, “HHS leaders commend the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for disavowing pediatric sex-rejecting procedures” (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2026).
2026, February 9. The ASPS Gender Surgery Task Force publishes an “Open letter to the board of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons regarding the development of the ASPS position statement on adolescent gender surgery published on February 3, 2026” (Berli et al, 2026, in Baum, 2026). The letter explicitly describes the 3 February statement as
a separate ASPS position statement addressing adolescent gender surgical care … released … without input from the Task Force … [which] is unaware of the statement’s authors and what methodology was used to arrive at the statement’s position.
Footnotes
- Costelloe (2026) in Berli et al (op cit) in Baum (op cit). ↩︎
References
American Society of Plastic Surgeons (2026, February 3). Position statement on gender surgery for children and adolescents. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
Baum, S. (2026, March 3). ASPS members demand answers after org released anti-trans statement from behind closed doors. Erin In the Morning (Substack, Inc.). Retrieved 4 March 2026.
US Department of Health and Human Services (2026, February 3). HHS leaders commend the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for disavowing pediatric sex-rejecting procedures [Media release]. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
Metadata
- Version: 1 (4 March 2026).
- Created: 4 March 2026.