>https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/planned-parenthood-is-helping-teenagers
lanned Parenthood is Helping Teenagers Transition After a 30 Minute Consult.
Planned Parenthood is one of the largest providers of cross-sex hormones in the United States, and one of the fastest growing. Affiliates in the greater Portland area saw a nearly 400 percent increase in "gender-affirming care visits" between 2021 and 2022, according to their annual reports, while those in Ohio saw a 544 percent increase over the same period. Hormones now appear to be in higher demand than abortion at some branches: A Planned Parenthood in Knoxville, Tenn., told NPR that nearly a fifth of its patients sought hormone therapy in 2021, whereas abortion makes up just 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services nationally.
This growth has come as pediatric gender clinics, which used to wait months before prescribing hormones, are becoming more laissez faire themselves. Some now prescribe hormones on the first visit, a Reuters investigation found last year, while others say ballooning caseloads have made it harder to conduct the kind of in-depth assessments once standard in the field.
But with Planned Parenthood a constant temptation for older teens, even the most conservative clinics have an incentive to reduce gatekeeping if they don’t want to lose patients. The result, Anderson said, is a race to the bottom that pulls all providers, no matter their philosophy, toward the informed consent model adopted by Planned Parenthood, which doles out life-altering drugs to almost anyone who requests them. And that model has alarmed even the liberal pioneers of gender medicine, who say that some 18-year-olds—especially those with special needs—cannot meaningfully consent to hormones without extensive counseling.