A girl who wants to transition into a boy would be prescribed testosterone injections.
Dr. Meg Meeker, a Catholic pediatrician and author, told CNA that “there is no solid evidence found through solid medical research that [hormones and other gender-affirming procedures] actually help children.”
“We do know, however, that many times it harms children — by causing infertility, psychological distress and confusion,” she said.
Planned Parenthood itself admits that these hormones can cause severe and sometimes permanent side effects in patients.
In literature explaining the risks of estrogen injections, for example, Planned Parenthood says expected side effects include thinning hair, decreased sex drive, loss in muscle mass and strength, and possibly permanent infertility.
The side effects of testosterone include similar impacts: changes to sex drive, loss of fertility, increased body hair, redistribution of body fat, and stopped periods, according to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood major player in transgender services
More than 35,000 patients received gender-affirming hormones from Planned Parenthood in 2021 alone, according to an NPR report.
That number doesn’t include other transgender services the abortion chain promises patients.
Planned Parenthood also connects patients with surgery referrals and helps patients change their names, find hair-removal options, get free breast binders, and change their voices.
A full list of Planned Parenthood clinics that provide these services can be found here.
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Ashley Coffield, the chief executive officer of the Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said in an interview with NPR this summer that abortion clinics are particularly well-suited to providing transgender services.
“Both are stigmatized services,” she said in the interview. “The same values we use in abortion care — like self-determination, respect, and a nonjudgmental approach to health care — translate really easily into serving our gender-affirming hormone care patients.”
Planned Parenthood did not respond to CNA’s repeated requests for comment.
Ringing the alarm bell on Planned Parenthood’s new ‘business model’
Top pro-life leaders and activists against transitioning kids say that Planned Parenthood’s pivot to gender services in the wake of Roe being overturned is “no surprise.”
“It’s no surprise that, as its abortion business declines, Planned Parenthood is seeking new ways to pump its profits and further its ideological goals,” Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s (EPPC) Person & Identity Project, told CNA.