Thirteen state attorneys general sent a letter to U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland on Wednesday urging the Department of Justice to “stand down” on targeting critics of child gender-transition procedures.

Their petition came after three major medical organizations demanded that the DOJ investigate and prosecute threats against health-care facilities that offer such life-altering surgeries for minors with gender dysphoria. Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association asked Garland to probe recent incidents of violence against certain hospitals and physicians.

However, in the letter obtained by journalist Christopher Rufo, the organizations also asked the DOJ to deploy technology companies to censor content that is skeptical of sex-change surgeries for children on their platforms. The groups alleged that a few high-profile social-media pundits have waged “an intentional campaign of disinformation” that is fueling a rise in intimidation against these medical centers and personnel.

Speaking specifically about people who “question the medical establishment’s current treatment of children struggling with gender dysphoria,” the 13 state attorneys general told Garland “you cannot and should not undertake such investigations and prosecutions.” Attorneys general from Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia signed the letter.

The three medical organizations, they wrote, “are asking you to direct the criminal enforcement power of the federal government not only at those committing or threatening violence but also at those whose speech may ‘provoke’ such threats.”

The 13 accused the groups of asking the DOJ to suppress ideas that oppose gender-transition surgeries, even though they are protected by the First Amendment, they argue.

A “free and open dialogue” is “urgently necessary,” given that new research has found limited evidence to support gender-reconstructive surgeries as effective for treating gender dysphoria in children.

“While the American medical organizations endorse a monolithic consensus they tout as impermeable to doubt, other countries have moved to restrict the medical treatment of gender dysphoria,” the letter notes. “One might expect a bit more humility from U.S. medical organizations when they address the life-altering, irreversible procedures they are championing as the cure du jour for pediatric gender dysphoria.”

The attorneys general asked Garland to “stand down and allow the national conversation to continue,” rather than jumping to stifle speech that challenges the medical apparatus’ current accepted thinking.