Experts explain why ‘transgender care’ providers like Planned Parenthood deserve scrutiny

The Federal Trade Commission (the agency responsible for protecting consumers from deceptive/unfair business practices) announced at a recent workshop that investigations are underway to “examine whether some of the practices in gender-affirming care are deceptive and require greater scrutiny,” particularly for minors.

Planned Parenthood, which claims that abortion ‘goes hand in hand’ with ‘transgender care,‘ has become one of its top providers, openly targeting minors for these so-called “services” and even prescribing hormones upon first visit. Any investigation into “gender-affirming care” should surely include this organization. 

Key Takeaways:

• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently hosted a workshop detailing some of the practices seen in the provision of so-called “gender-affirming care.”

• Experts testified to various dangers of allowing minors access to this “care,” including the fact that there is no diagnostic testing of any kind that can be conducted to prove a ‘transgender’ diagnosis. 

• Others pointed out how providing ‘transgender services’ has become a lucrative, billion-dollar business which preys upon the vulnerable, many of whom already have multiple mental health diagnoses.

The Details:

Last month, the FTC hosted a workshop entitled “The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care for Minors,” featuring multiple speakers across ideological lines and included medical/mental health professionals, legal experts, detransitioners, and the parents of detransitioners. 

Section 5 of the FTC Act prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce,” a sentiment echoed during the workshop by FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson.

“Congress has entrusted me with protecting citizens from deceptive acts and practices,” Ferguson said, “and one of the reasons we are here today is to examine whether some of the practices in gender-affirming care are deceptive and require greater scrutiny by the FTC.” 

Objective Biology vs. Subjective Feelings

Independent endocrinologist and author Dr. Michael Laidlaw began his presentation by explaining how his local schools began reading the book, “I Am Jazz” to Kindergarteners. According to Laidlaw, the book teaches very young children “that a boy could be born with a girl’s brain,” and “that a doctor could somehow diagnose a child as being transgender.” He noted that the book does not go into any of the risks associated with ‘transgender’ services, and stated that ‘trans-identity’ hinges upon “objective biology versus subjective feelings.” 

“Gender dysphoria is a legitimate psychological diagnosis… with an extreme discomfort with one’s sex and perceived gender leading to significant distress and impairment of functioning lasting at least six months,” he stated. Dr. Laidlaw said if children are not given cross-sex hormones, studies estimate that “50-98% will desist or grow out of” gender dysphoria by the time they reach adulthood.   

Laidlaw explained that “hormones are very powerful medications that alter body and mind” and no diagnostic testing such as blood tests, CAT scans, or MRIs can be conducted to prove a ‘transgender’ diagnosis. Yet, life-altering puberty blockers and hormones are prescribed to minors to treat an unverifiable condition.

Dr. Laidlaw describes this as a frequent “pathway to sterilization,” as sex organs may become “impaired or [are] perhaps destroyed” with the improper use of hormones and ‘puberty blockers.’  

“Young people have been permanently maimed and killed during the course of these treatments,” claimed Laidlaw, describing the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care as “an extreme document” which “presents a grave danger to minors and should not be followed by any clinician or physician.” WPATH, formerly known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, sets standards for ‘care’ to which many providers aim to adhere, and describes itself as an “interdisciplinary professional and educational organization devoted to transgender health.” WPATH has regional organizations in the U.S. (USPATH) and Europe (EPATH).

Based on this evaluation, it is notable that Planned Parenthood’s services are even substandard to that of WPATH, requiring no mental health evaluation or professional diagnosis prior to prescribing hormones to minors.    

 “Deception and Pseudoscience”

Psychiatrist, author, and international speaker Dr. Miriam Grossman further detailed the deception and pseudoscience promoted by Planned Parenthood and others providing ‘transgender’ services.

“… Fraud and deceptive practice means representing as facts things that are entirely unproven or demonstrably false, thereby misleading the consumer in a material way,” she said in her presentation. 

Grossman detailed how deceptive language and the (potentially fraudulent) use of medical codes are used by Planned Parenthood and others to get insurance to cover financial costs for “gender-affirming care.” She explained that the International Classification of Diseases has thousands of various diagnoses utilized for medical coding, and that endocrine diagnosis coding for type 1 diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, and hyperthyroidism ranges between E00 and E89. Referencing medical records of some of the detransitioners in attendance, Dr. Grossman stated that the patients were “physically healthy people” with “no medical diagnosis whatsoever” – only psychiatric diagnoses.

However, Dr. Grossman stated that Planned Parenthood and other clinics may be utilizing the International Classification of Diseases code 34.9 (for “endocrine disorder, unspecified”) “in order to get payment for the services.”

She quoted Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania, which admitted: 

In order to meet the needs of most insurance companies and patients, we typically use the code E34.9. We recognize that much of the language around billing for gender-affirming care is troublesome. We recognize this is medically necessary care and will work to decrease barriers to get folks the care they need.

Lucrative Business

Planned Parenthood and its affiliates target minors through their sex education programs, teen clubs, and social media campaigns with transgender ideology. Then, aiming to capitalize on their marketing, Planned Parenthood continues to target minors by providing  ‘cross-sex’ hormones and referrals for life-altering (and sometimes permanently sterilizing) surgeries. 

Planned Parenthood received nearly $800M in taxpayer funding in 2023-24 while killing over 402,000 preborn babies. Since 2000, it has committed an estimated 7.5M abortions while receiving nearly $11.4B in taxpayer funds. Now, as a self-proclaimed top provider of ‘transgender care,’ Planned Parenthood has found more ways to profit from the mutilation of children’s bodies.

Erin Friday – a San Francisco attorney and mother of a former trans-identified child – explained the lucrative business of “cross-sex hormones” and “puberty blockers” which are “being handed out as [if they are] candy.” Friday explained it as a billion dollar business, stating that “Planned Parenthood is also reaping the benefits of this market. This is why they want to shut us up.” 

Pointing to over 400 gender clinics operating across the U.S., Friday estimated that in 2024, close to 4,000 new minor patients were placed on ‘puberty blockers.’ One common drug prescribed is Lupron by AbbVie, costing roughly $27,000 for a six-month supply, which treats conditions such as “endometriosis, uterine fibroids, prostate cancer, and precocious puberty,” eventually decreasing estrogen in women and testosterone in men. Another drug sometimes prescribed is the Supprelin implant, used for children with central precocious puberty according to its manufacturer, Endo Pharmaceuticals; this, Friday said, can cost up to $210,000 for a six-month supply. 

Life-Altering Impacts

Director of Policy for the American Principles Project Paul Dupont discussed the negative lifelong impacts some detransitioners experience after taking hormones or ‘puberty blockers.’

One case he mentioned is 21-year-old Cristina Hineman‘s ongoing lawsuit against Planned Parenthood filed in April 2024, which claims Hineman “is an example of the growing number of young people who have been victims of so-called ‘gender-affirming care,’ characterized by the immediate, no-questions-asked ‘affirmation’ of one’s desired gender identity… without any mental health assessment.” 

The lawsuit noted, “At every step of the way, Cristina was failed by the medical and mental health providers that she and her family sought out for help with her depression, anxiety, social exclusion or rejection disorder, and other mental health conditions.” 

Dupont noted, “Planned Parenthood’s materials for clinicians state atrophy [the degeneration of body tissue or organs] can begin within just three to six months of exposure. But on the brief patient consent form, it’s about three pages long… this [atrophy] was referred to [by Planned Parenthood] as only genital dryness. There’s a lack of informed consent at the outset.”

“The Most Vulnerable of the Vulnerable”

Hineman, like many of the detransitioners and parents who spoke at the workshop, had been diagnosed previously with autism, depression, and other mental health comorbidities — a common exploitation of a group of people which panelist Dr. Michelle Cretella called “the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.” 

Dr. Cretella further stated: 

We’re dealing with children who have an average — one study found — an average of five traumas in their childhood. They have untreated psychiatric disease. They may be on the autism spectrum, they may have ADHD… It’s a vulnerable population.

Planned Parenthood was frequently described as exploitative of both minors and their parents based on how it claims minors are likely to commit suicide if they are not affirmed in their new identities through the use of harmful hormones and surgeries.

Dr. Cretella concluded, “You got to ask yourselves, is it loving for big medicine to offer your daughter, your sister, your LGB child, your ADHD child, mutilation, castration… and sterilization? Is that loving? I call it criminal. My profession used to call it eugenics.”

Is it a coincidence that according to many of the expert panelists and detransitioners, a large percentage of minors offered hormones or permanent sterilization under the guise of ‘transgender care’ also happen to have diagnoses of mental illness, suicidal ideations, ADHD, or autism? Historically, the practice of eugenics and forced sterilization targeted not just minorities but individuals with mental illness and disabilities who were labeled as ‘feeble-minded,’ ‘insane,’ or ‘undesirable.’ 

The Bottom Line:

Given the racist and eugenics-based history of Planned Parenthood, it seems reasonable to question the organization’s  true motivation in providing both abortions and “gender-affirming care.”

And based on Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded fraud, false and deceptive practices, abuses, scandals, and lack of providing informed consent, the FTC should ensure that it investigates Planned Parenthood — for far more than just its ‘transgender services.’  

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