Co-founder of first US pediatric gender clinic hints Planned Parenthood is off the rails

The co-founder of the nation’s first pediatric gender clinic recently called out Planned Parenthood’s willingness to prescribe cross-sex hormones upon first request as “substandard” and “beyond their scope of practice.”

Planned Parenthood, now a top provider of so-called “gender-affirming care,” has claimed that abortion goes hand in hand with this type of “service” and is cashing in on the proliferation of gender confusion. The corporation, along with other abortion facilities which often fail to specify age limits for cross-sex hormones on their websites, are openly advertising it to minors.

Key Takeaways:

• Laura Edwards-Leeper, who helped to develop transgender advocacy group WPATH’s standards, thinks Planned Parenthood’s protocol for prescribing cross-sex hormones is “substandard.”

• Planned Parenthood holds to an “informed consent” model, which simply means that it allows people (even minors) to self-diagnose with no mental assessment of any kind, and often gives them cross-sex hormones often upon first visit.

• The lives of real individuals have been ruined because of Planned Parenthood’s protocol.

• Planned Parenthood’s substandard protocol for giving life-altering cross-sex hormones to minors without any true counseling or assessment can do real harm; some have suggested that the corporation should be put on notice, or warned, about the potential for lawsuits.

The Details:

Laura Edwards-Leeper, who co-founded the nation’s first pediatric gender clinic and helped develop transgender advocacy group WPATH’s standards of care, told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that she believes Planned Parenthood is operating “beyond their scope of practice” in this arena.

Edwards-Leeper was the past chair of the Child and Adolescent Committee for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and served on the American Psychological Association committee that authored guidelines for working with individuals who identify as transgender.

Substandard protocol

According to WSJ, Edwards-Leeper’s young adult patients have told her about how quickly and easily they were able to get cross-sex hormone treatments from Planned Parenthood.

“It really seems that their protocol is substandard and lacks the rigor necessary for a life-altering intervention,” she said.

Of course, “rigor” isn’t Planned Parenthood’s strong suit: it fights against waiting periods for life-altering abortion decisions, so why would its ‘lack of rigor’ in delivering life-altering hormones to developing teens be surprising?

The WSJ report claimed:

Planned Parenthood has also rapidly expanded its services into one of the most contested and politicized areas of healthcare, gender transitions. Its national office does not reveal numbers on these services, instead grouping them into an ‘other services’ category in its annual report. In 2019, that category included 17,791 cases. It rose to 77,858 in 2023.

With trans-identified minors, Planned Parenthood follows an ‘informed consent’ model, which, according to its patient guidelines, enables patients to get a same-day prescription for cross-sex hormones after a 30-minute in-person or remote consultation with a staff member. No professional diagnosis is required.

When Informed Consent Means Nothing

Edwards-Leeper and clinical psychologist Erica Anderson (also a member of the American Psychological Association committee which writes guidelines for working with transgender-identifying individuals) wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in 2021:

In professional circles, we hear from pediatric endocrinologists and others who prescribe hormones for trans youth. Many openly discuss how they use the adult informed-consent model of care with their teen patients, which almost always means no mental health involvement and sometimes no parent input, either.

Planned Parenthood claims it uses “an informed consent model of care” in which “providers and patients discuss the risks and benefits of care and work together to create the best care plan.” But whether or not risks are even discussed is questionable, as Planned Parenthood clients have claimed that the organization does little to no counseling before prescribing cross-sex hormones or referring clients for permanent, body-altering surgery.

Planned Parenthood does not “require a note from a mental health therapist [for a client] to receive hormone therapy. We believe when our patients are fully informed, they can make the best decision for themselves and their bodies.”

That “plan” then frequently results in same-day cross-sex hormone drugs without any mental assessments.

This “informed consent” model essentially means that when a Planned Parenthood client (adult or minor) “informs” Planned Parenthood they want cross-sex hormones, Planned Parenthood prescribes it with few questions asked — according to its own clients.

Online, over and over, Planned Parenthood claims that “Patients do not need a mental health referral to receive hormone care.” It also advises clients, “In most cases your clinician will be able to prescribe hormones the same day as your first visit. No letter from a mental health provider is required.”

Reality Check:

A number of young adults have stated that when they sought cross-sex hormones from Planned Parenthood, the facilities didn’t require any sort of assessment, and they (to their own detriment) received hormones the same day — some with little more than a single, 30-minute appointment. As stated, Planned Parenthood openly admits this is how its “informed consent” model operates.

Former Planned Parenthood client Elle Palmer testified that at the age of 16, Planned Parenthood gave her testosterone despite her history of mental health struggles.

Detransitioner Cat Cattinson was prescribed a double dosage of testosterone over the phone after a 30-minute call, and others such as Cristina Hineman and Helena Kerschner both obtained prescriptions for testosterone at age 18 from Planned Parenthood clinics after brief initial consultations with the staff.

Ryan claimed she received no counseling before she obtained a cross-sex hormone prescription from Planned Parenthood to “transition” from female to male, as Live Action News previously detailed. She told Dr. Phil that Planned Parenthood also referred her for so-called ‘top surgery’ — meaning one in which her healthy female breasts would be surgically removed. According to a report published by the Post-Millennial, “Planned Parenthood also gave her a letter to facilitate surgical breast removal, known in the gender identity movement as ‘top surgery,’ after only a 45-minute phone call.”

Why It Matters:

Planned Parenthood receives millions in taxpayer dollars through Medicaid and other sources. But using taxpayer dollars to fund substandard “care” is an improper use of those funds — which is why some argue that Planned Parenthood and others should be put on notice that it could become the target of lawsuits for doing real harm.

What this means is that government or private insurers to Planned Parenthood and others could be contacted and informed that those businesses may be providing services in a way that could endanger clients’ mental, emotional, or physical health in order to increase profits or cut costs.

Planned Parenthood sells cross-sex hormones to confused young people who believe those substances will lead the way to their fulfillment, putting them at risk for mental and physical health issues. The corporation advertises this service mainly on the internet, and as previously explained by Live Action News, Planned Parenthood’s websites, social media pages, and “sex-ed” videos are filled with disturbing and misleading gender ideology, grooming children to be promiscuous and to reject biological sex, love, and commitment.

Through its content, Planned Parenthood even normalizes the idea of people being “multigender” and changing gender anytime they ‘feel’ like it.

Planned Parenthood has been willing to refer minors for life-altering drugs and may even have plans to expand its targeting of teens. A brochure uploaded by the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood affiliate claims to serve “patients 16 & older for HRT, with the hope to serve younger patients in the future.” (emphasis added)

A Review of Evidence and Best Practices from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria” also pointed out Planned Parenthood’s targeting of minors, stating:

According to a 2024 investigative report published in The Free Press, Planned Parenthood is “the country’s leading provider” of hormones for young people.

Approximately 40% of the more than 40,000 patients for whom Planned Parenthood prescribed hormones in 2023 were between the ages of 18 and 22. Some branches, however, “offer hormones starting at age 16 with parental approval.”

In recent years, Planned Parenthood clinics have adopted an expedited access policy on an “informed consent” basis.

Live Action’s undercover investigation revealed how easy it is for minors to obtain cross-sex hormones from Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood, which is heavily involved in creating content for public school sex-ed, openly promotes the use of puberty blockers for minor children.

Planned Parenthood Gave Her Testosterone at 16 — Paid For With Your Tax Dollars

The investigation found that staff at seven of the 33 facilities contacted confirmed they would prescribe cross-sex hormones at the first appointment, even virtually, as Live Action News previously reported.

In most instances, Planned Parenthood assured the caller that on the same day (or at the latest, the following day) of her first appointment, she would be able to receive the cross-sex hormones from her pharmacy.

The Bottom Line:

When even the foremost “experts” in an experimental pseudoscience such as “transgender care” begin to think you’ve jumped the shark, it’s time to stop and take a good, hard look at what you’re doing. If Planned Parenthood continues down this path, it will prove that the actual health of individuals matters far less to them than the dollars they add to the corporation’s bottom line.

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