Adolescents are going to Planned Parenthood to get hormone replacement drugs in an effort to avoid the often months-long consultations and safeguards implemented by specialist and strongly regulated clinics.
Planned Parenthood has become one of the fastest-growing and largest hormone providers across the United States as the organization – which is more commonly known for assisting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of unborn babies every year – is willing to dish out the cross-sex hormones within 30 minutes of the first consultation. The only requirement for a teenager is a mere discussion about the potential side effects of the drugs.
Most specialist clinics, however, often undertake rigorous and thorough assessments that take up to a year to complete, with even that timeframe becoming longer due to the ever-increasing public scrutiny and attention surrounding the issue.
As a result, Planned Parenthood affiliates in Portland saw an increase of roughly 400 percent in cases involving hormone or transgender treatment between 2021 and 2022. Affiliates in Ohio reported an over 500 percent increase. One of the organization’s Knoxville-based clinics even admitted that around one-fifth of its patients in 2021 demanded hormone therapy.
One mother, whose autistic son was prescribed hormones within minutes of his first visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Jersey, argued, “It’s criminal what Planned Parenthoods all over the country are doing… And most people have no idea this is happening.”
Notably, a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry earlier this year found that transgender surgery fails to reduce the demand for mental health services.
