Poverty and misery exist all over the world, as well as growth and hope, and one thing that often separates the two is a family’s ability to control the number of their progeny. Contraception is a key to that freedom, but even in America some women can’t get it easily or can’t afford it. Planned Parenthood (PP) has met this need for many years. This column is not about abortion, a subject there’s been enough ink spilled on lately. Suffice it to say that contraception and abortion are not the same thing, and while one can hope that education and personal responsibility will one day render the latter extinct, there will always be a demand for the former. Given the thin Constitutional flooring underneath Roe v. Wade, the likely interim path seems to be each state following the will of its people, as the 10th Amendment provides.
Still, whatever your views on contraception and abortion, it is evident that Planned Parenthood has gotten increasingly out of their lane. Just as Amnesty International, which was founded with a mission to release political prisoners and now, after a generation of mission-creep, champions illegal immigration, or the ACLU, which has gone from its roots defending free speech to being a partisan for radical transgender activists, so has Planned Parenthood gone from being a provider of contraception to a generalised social justice NGO, spouting a range of woke gobbledygook that undermines any medical objectivity and integrity.
A recent questionnaire from PP offered no fewer than 12 pronoun choices in the pull-down menu. Then there’s this, from the national website:
“Many people can’t remember the exact date of their last menstrual period.”
Most men can remember – never. That’s because they are men. Or this:
“Many people notice symptoms early in their pregnancy.”
Biological females, i.e. women, have periods, and they get pregnant. It is also true that some transgender men, i.e. biological women who identify as men, can still do both, but they are a tiny minority, particularly as the very goal of sex transition in most cases is to end both menstruation and possible pregnancy through chemical or surgical means. But it’s not just political correctness on names or pronouns that has crossed the line; PP is not alone in insisting that “inclusion” means the English language should be tortured to mollify under 1% of people at the expense of insulting 99+%. One might overlook it. The real problem is this:
’Be aware that puberty can be an especially tough time for transgender or gender nonconforming kids. As they get closer to reaching puberty, you can talk with a doctor or nurse about puberty blockers and other transgender medical care.’
PP is jumping in with both partisan feet onto the side of “affirmative care,” i.e. the concept, legally mandated in 20 states already, that therapists and doctors must not challenge the assertion of a child that they are a sex opposite to that observed at birth, matching physical anatomy, and lived up until then. They must, instead, take the word of that child as if it were a clinical diagnosis, and proceed with “affirming,” through hormone therapy and surgical intervention if that is what the child wants – regardless of parental wishes.
As Abigil Shrier (Irreversible Damage), Deborah Soh (The End of Gender), and others brave enough to question this instant new orthodoxy have written, childhood gender dysphoria affected at most .01% of people until recently. A decade ago, fewer than 1 in 10,000 individuals sought medical intervention for it. In the past few years, however, the rate of alleged adolescent gender dysphoria has increased over 10 times in the U.S. and 40 times in Britain, with most of the increase being in biological girls, who had previously made up far fewer cases than boys.
There are two plausible explanations for this sudden explosion in transgender self-diagnosis in young females: (1) throughout history, there have always been this many gender-dysphoric girls, and only now, in an accepting age, are they able to come forward to transition; or (2) there is a psychological or other cause for most of the increase above historical norms, such as peer group contagion or mass hysteria. This would not be the first time: the word “hysteria,” after all, comes from the Greek for uterus, because the ancient Greeks thought it a female condition. The Salem witch trials are but one of many historical examples. Instead of a rigid, open academic debate on the causes of the surge, and consensus on the best method of treatment, a hard core of trans-rights activists, not all of them trans and by no means representing the views of all trans people, have shut down discussion of this topic in a way that the Spanish Inquisition would envy. They believe that they alone want to protect and help children (who more often than not have other mental health concerns as well) who are questioning their gender. In service of their righteous cause, they are prepared to wage all-out, take-no-prisoners ideological war, causing respected, caring professionals to lose their jobs and parents to cower in silence.
Where is PP in all this? Right in the middle. A page from the website of PP of Illinois claims that “there is scientific evidence to support that gender identity is biologically determined.” This is highly contentious, if not outright nonsense. There is equal evidence that gender identity is a choice, one that can later be changed. Equating self-professed gender identity with being homosexual, for which there is some evidence of biological determination, is inaccurate; it is ideology trumping empiricism.
The page continues: “Ignoring a request to use a name or set of pronouns is disrespectful – and an act of violence.” The former, perhaps. The latter? No.
The equation of words, or even silence, with actual violence is a pervasive exaggeration of the progressive left, a crying of ‘wolf’ that ultimately lessens threats or instances of actual violence, whether gender-based or otherwise. The web page, now well away from neutral, trustworthy information and into the realm of activism and ideology, later tells readers that “guys” is not gender-neutral…” and advises the use of “Hey, Superheroes!” as a greeting instead. (Superheroines like Wonder Woman and Black Widow might be perplexed).
Meanwhile, PP of Southwest and Central Florida “offers Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy, either testosterone or estrogen, for transgender patients. We see hormone therapy as an important service that really goes to the core of our mission.” Really? The core of PP’s mission was contraception. That then crept into reproductive health. Providing hormones to transgender patients does nothing towards either objective. Testosterone makes women infertile and atrophies their reproductive organs. Estrogen does not enhance male production of sperm; transgender men, even with the chemical and surgical magic available today, will never be able to produce sperm and impregnate “birthing people.”
PP has gone all-in on radical trans ideology, instead of concentrating on its core mission: cheap, available birth control. The most reliable studies show that historically, up to 90% of gender-dysphoric children eventually desisted, i.e. grew to accept their biological sex (many were then gay or lesbian). Trans extremists believe this data is bunk; they insist that the children now transitioning know exactly what they are doing and will never change their minds.
Only in a decade or so will we have enough data and experience to judge whether they were right, but at great cost. We will then know whether the current wave of mass female gender dysphoria was based on real, life-long conditions, or a combination of underlying mental health issues, peer contagion, and the shameful abandonment of professional standards by doctors, therapists, and public officials. America is going to wake up from this era of transgender ascendancy with a mighty hangover, but if current trends of de-transitioning are any guide, thousands of young (biological) women are going to wake up without their breasts; infertile, with their bodies permanently altered by having taken Testosterone, and stuck in a gender limbo they were too young to know was a one-way trip. Planned Parenthood will have this on its conscience.