I’ve Got the Blues — Part 2

This is the 2nd segment of an essay in two parts. Part 1 is here.

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There’s nothing quite like finding out that an organization you faithfully supported for decades, marched with, and spent your adult life upholding as the exemplar of those protecting women’s reproductive rights, turns out to be the country’s second largest provider of cross-sex hormones to young people—the most reckless of purveyors that, in all likelihood, will, ironically, soon be instrumental in sterilizing your own child.

I believed that Planned Parenthood’s mission was lifesaving healthcare for women who didn’t have access to breast cancer screening, prenatal/gynecological care, and yes, abortions. And for much of my adult life this was the case. But in 2005, Planned Parenthood began providing “gender affirming care,” adding a new focus to their mission of protecting bodily autonomy.

You can be excused for not knowing any of this, because in general, their frequent donor solicitation letters oddly don’t mention that they provide sex-change services at all (and it’s easy to miss that it’s now “people” who need abortion access, not women), but with around 400 Planned Parenthood facilities and affiliate sites across the country currently offering in-person or telehealth cross-sex hormone prescriptions and monitoring, puberty blockers for minors with parental consent where required, referrals for surgery, letters for name changes, and other gender-related services, this focus is no small aspect of their mission. All-comers are welcome at Planned Parenthood, with no requirements for a medical referral or approval from a therapist because “they trust patients to make [medical] decisions for themselves.” Business is brisk. Planned Parenthood is rapidly expanding sites and staffing to keep up with rising demand.

At sites that provide gender-related services, anyone 18 and older can easily and quickly get a prescription for cross-sex hormones over the phone—typically same-day and, for some, within half an hour or less. Helena Kershner is a young woman who, with encouragement from her school’s guidance counselor, adopted a male identity after immersing herself in Tumbler’s overtly trans-oriented virtual world. Once 18, Kershner was able to get a prescription for testosterone from Planned Parenthood following a 1-hour consult. If the Chicago site she visited is any indication of the level of care you can expect at Planned Parenthood, the clinics themselves pose a danger to patients beyond the negative and irreversible side effects of the drugs. Based on her own assessment of need, Kershner asked for, and received, the highest dose available to her—4 times the initial dose recommended for her. The high levels of the drug worsened her already poor mental health and landed her in the hospital twice before she realized that transitioning had been a massive mistake.

For all their excitement about the ever-expanding gender net they’re casting, Planned Parenthood’s 2021-2022 Annual Report, aptly titled, “Relentless,” barely mentions gender-affirming care and provides no meaningful budget breakdown, bundling “transgender services” into “Other Services” that include “WIC services, pediatric care, other adult preventive care, and high complexity visits, including infertility services.” Curiously, while many preventative services, like breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraceptive services, and prenatal services, have been on a sharp decline, services in this black-box category jumped from roughly 16,000 in 2021 to a staggering 256,000 in 2022—a lot of “Other” that could use a little daylight.

On the other hand, there’s no shortage of daylight on Planned Parenthood’s gender fervor. If ever you wanted a primer on reliably incoherent trans ideology, you can find it on their website. Start “getting the facts” on your gender information journey by exploring “Transgender Identities,” which they immediately conflate with sex: “There’s more to gender than just male and female.” We learn that while trans and gender nonconforming folks don’t need mental health counseling, “they may suffer from mental health conditions like depression and anxiety as a result of not being accepted, believed, or because of bullying they may experience.”

For teens (13-19), Planned Parenthood offers an online “chat space” where they can talk to each other about gender, and an “imi” guide, where they’re encouraged to explore their gender. According to this guide, “Researchers and activists alike agree on this: identity matters. Reflecting on your identity can be challenging and emotional, as well as fun and euphoric.” Also, that sex is a spectrum and that “three commonly observed [sex] categories include male, female, and intersex.” In the “Gender 101” section, we meet a range of fascinating non-conformers, including Yasmin Benoit (she/her). In a come-hither pose, wearing a see-through jacket and a revealing black faux leather bustier and miniskirt, we learn that Yasmin is asexual. No sexual attraction whatsoever. Obviously.

Teens can sign up for texts to help them “explore imi and boost [their] mental health.” In typical “keeping secrets is good” fashion, teens are provided a few tips for keeping those texts private, like deleting texts after reading them, using a fake name in your contacts, and clearing your browser history often on shared or monitored computers.

Starting your gender indoctrination program early? Planned Parenthood offers parents information on how to mess with your preschooler’s head: “Ask them if they’re a boy or a girl, and how they know that to be true.” Parents are taught that children understand their “gender identity” as early as three years old and that these booger-eating sages know deep inside whether they are or aren’t the gender people say they are. While there’s encouragement to fight gender stereotypes, parents are told that “transgender means you identify with a different gender from the one you were assigned at birth. Gender nonconforming means your preschooler’s gender identity or expression doesn’t go along with traditional ideas of just male or female—it could mean you identify with words like non-binary, genderqueer, or something else.” Your child “may only want to wear the other gender’s clothing, wear their hair like the other gender, or be on teams or play with other children only of the other gender.” So it’s important not to box your kid in with imposed gender roles, but if they don’t conform to these roles, box them in with a gender identity that leads to a medical pathway.

For elementary school kids, Planned Parenthood says, “gender identity—including transgender and gender nonconforming identities—are [sic] cemented early in elementary school.” Yet we’re given a list of identities that includes “gender fluid,” which, by all accounts, seems very much not-cemented at any point, and are told in the imi guide that gender “can change throughout our lives or from one situation to the next.” [This is what’s known in the movie biz as a “continuity error.”]

If this is not the Planned Parenthood you believed you were supporting, consider sending them a letter to let them know your thoughts about the gender insanity they peddle. And take advantage of their postage paid envelopes to do so.

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While it’s of no use segregating our grief along party lines, I’d like to believe that my conservative sisters and brothers in this fight can more easily find comfort in what is familiar to them, that they can more readily depend on the support of family and community, although I know it’s not a given. Certainly, their cultural icons are intact and their politicians have been dependable allies, while for those of us from the Left, one after another seemingly reliable voice of reason inexplicably took a wrong turn at the intersection of rationality and ideology. Like thousands of other liberal parents, I’m traveling this hellish road into uncharted territory without most of my old comforts, glancing at the rearview mirror to see my previous world get smaller and farther away, and not bothering to wave goodbye.