(LifeSiteNews) – Planned Parenthood should not be defunded solely because of its abortion business but also because it targets gender-confused individuals for unscientific “transgender” drugs and surgeries, according to Melanie Israel, a policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation.
Israel noted that the abortion giant continues to move into the transgender business, much in the same way it has continued to dominate the abortion industry.
“A 2022 Heritage Foundation analysis found that between one-third and one-half of the centers had entered the gender-bending market,” Israel noted. “One year later, Planned Parenthood’s newest reports reveal that what it calls ‘gender-affirming care’ increased by 49%.”
“Some regions outpaced others,” she reported. “For example, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio boasts a 544% increase in ‘transgender services’ visits from 2021 to 2022.”
There are other examples of the growth in transgenderism, which could be further proof that it is a social contagion, meaning individuals are being peer pressured or encouraged to “transition.”
“Columbia-Willamette, a Planned Parenthood affiliate covering the greater Portland area, nearly quadrupled its ‘gender-affirming care’ visits from 2021 to 2022,” Israel wrote. “So, what caused this 3,063-visit increase? ‘Increased acceptance’ is surely not the answer.”
She thanked Congressman Dan Crenshaw for his legislation to “prevent children’s hospitals from receiving federal tax dollars if they provided gender hormone or surgical procedures to minors in the past year.”
“Congress should defund Planned Parenthood’s latest ‘gender-affirming’ boondoggle and instead fund real health care that doesn’t hurt women and girls, unborn children, and kids struggling with gender dysphoria,” Israel argued.
Others have made similar points about how Planned Parenthood grooms kids for “gender-affirming care.”
“We see it in schools, on TV, in movies, and from organizations like Planned Parenthood that target children and youth,” Susan Ciancio wrote recently for American Life League. “In its push for a hedonistic society where people should do what makes them feel good, Planned Parenthood attempts to normalize immorality and evils, including abortion, contraception, and ‘sex-reassignment’ surgery — and it does so from a very early age.”
“Why? Because it knows that the earlier you reach children, the more ingrained a philosophy will become,” she wrote.
“The grooming starts at a very young age, but it all begins when children are in preschool, as Planned Parenthood also suggests talking to your preschooler about which gender they ‘identify’ with,” Ciancio warned.
“Though combating today’s woke culture may seem like an uphill battle, we must never tire of teaching our children moral truths,” she said.
Transgenderism lacks scientific support
The push for transgenderism, particularly the documented efforts to target kids, comes despite a growing body of evidence that undermines any alleged benefits of surgical and chemical mutilation.
While it is a biological fact and moral truth that sex is unchangeable, the evidence even in support of encouraging gender confusion falls short.
For example, a trained endocrinologist has called transgenderism a “scientifically baseless movement.”
The permanent damage caused by transgender drugs is also documented and explained by credentialed medical experts.
Dr. Quentin Van Meter previously told LifeSiteNews about the harms of transgender drugs.
“If you are interrupting [physical maturation] with clearly the intent of never having it go the direction that nature intended, with biological males ending up as adult males and biological females ending up as adult females, if you interrupt that, you are basically setting up a disease state,” Van Meter told LifeSiteNews in 2021.
“And then on top of that, the purpose is clearly in the vast majority of kids that get on puberty blockers, they will not be allowed to go through their own natural puberty. They will be held back and then given cross-sex hormones.”
LifeSiteNews has further chronicled the identified harms of transgenderism based on statements from American medical experts, international medical professionals, “detransitioners” themselves, and social scientists. You can read more here.