The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) is a fringe conservative doctors' group designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Despite its name, ACPeds is not affiliated with the mainstream American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which has over 67,000 members — ACPeds has approximately 500 members and exists primarily to provide a pseudo-medical veneer for anti-LGBTQ policy positions.
ACPeds was founded in 2002 by a splinter group of conservative pediatricians who broke from the American Academy of Pediatrics over AAP's support for LGBTQ equality, including same-sex parenting and adoption rights. The group has consistently opposed:
A Mother Jones investigation revealed ACPeds as a key participant in the national secret working group coordinated by South Dakota state Rep. Fred Deutsch to push anti-trans healthcare bans across the United States. [1]
Andre Van Mol, an ACPeds member, was part of the email group that shaped Deutsch's 2019 "Vulnerable Child Protection Act." Van Mol raised concerns that the bill as written might accidentally block healthcare providers from "attempting to change…a child's perception of their sex" — effectively seeking to preserve room for conversion therapy.
Michelle Cretella, ACPeds executive director, worked alongside ADF affiliate Vernadette Broyles and American Principles Project fellow Jane Robbins to compile a packet of lobbying materials in support of state-level versions of the bill, including a guide targeted at parents.
ACPeds has a close working relationship with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the far-right Christian legal powerhouse. ADF is currently representing ACPeds in a lawsuit to ban the abortion pill mifepristone nationally — Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA. [1:1] This lawsuit, filed in 2022, sought to revoke FDA approval of mifepristone nationwide; the Supreme Court largely rejected the challenge on standing grounds in 2024, but the case demonstrated the breadth of ACPeds' alliance with ADF beyond anti-LGBTQ issues.