In August of 2022, Dr. Bhavik Kumar, the medical director of primary and trans care at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, told NPR that more than half of all Planned Parenthood health centers offer medicalization for transgender-identifying individuals, including cross-sex hormone injections. The news outlet noted that “Over 35,000 of Planned Parenthood’s patients nationwide sought gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy in 2021, and that number doesn’t include trans and nonbinary people who relied on other services.”
Live Action News has estimated that between 2014 and 2019, Planned Parenthood saw a 669% increase — nearly 700% — in the number of facilities offering cross-sex hormone injections for transgender-identifying individuals, an increase from 26 centers to 200 centers.
In other words, the nation’s largest abortion provider has now set itself up as the second-largest provider of transgender-related services in the nation.
A rapid climb in providing ‘hormone treatments’
The first time Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) mentioned transgender services in its annual report was in the 2014-2015 AR, which stated, “Planned Parenthood affiliates expanded access to hormone treatments for transgender patients, with 26 centers now offering this care in California, Colorado, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Vermont, and Washington State.”
By 2015, Planned Parenthood announced that “Planned Parenthood health centers are expanding services to provide more care to trans people and men,” adding that the “priorities” of PPGen and PPGenAction campus groups were “Ensuring inclusivity in the reproductive health movement, particularly as it relates to trans people; [f]ighting abortion stigma,” among others.
In 2016 Planned Parenthood reported that “17 states now have Planned Parenthood health centers that provide hormone therapy” — a statistic it repeated when, in September 2017, Planned Parenthood said that “centers in 17 states” now offered “hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for transgender people.” PP added, “From 2013 to 2015, there was an 80 percent increase in Planned Parenthood affiliates that reported offering HRT to transgender patients.” By the time the organization published its 2017-2018 annual report, it reported, “Hormone therapy for transgender patients is available in 21 states.”
By 2018, the number of facilities grew to 31 states, a tally that held into 2019 when Planned Parenthood wrote, “More than 200 health centers in 31 states” were “providing hormone therapy for transgender patients.”
By 2020, Planned Parenthood’s website noted, “Nationally, Planned Parenthood is the second largest provider of Gender Affirming Hormone Care.”
Planned Parenthood website second largest provider of transgender services gender affirming care 2020 WBM
Then in its 2021-2022 annual report, Planned Parenthood noted that the organization now has 41 affiliates (out of 49 total affiliates) “providing gender-affirming hormone therapy” and, interestingly, 33 affiliates reportedly offer “depression screening.”
No transgender “service” category provided in annual report
“Gender-affirming services” (GAC) including hormone injections at Planned Parenthood also include:
- Estrogen and anti-androgen hormone injections
- Testosterone hormone injections
- Puberty blockers
Planned Parenthood North Central States Gender Affirming Care
Nationally, Planned Parenthood’s annual reports (its most recent is the 2020-2021 annual report) have not included a specific “gender-affirming” or “transgender” service category.
Instead, Planned Parenthood has lumped “GAC” numbers in with its “Other Procedures, Women and Men” services. That category includes “WIC services [which would be referrals]… pediatric care, transgender services, other adult preventive care, and high complexity visits, including infertility services.”
Live Action News previously reported an increase of nearly 83% (from 9,738 in 2018 to 17,791 in 2019-2020) for this category with the bump likely due to Planned Parenthood’s increased marketing of transgender services. Planned Parenthood’s 2020 report showed a slight decrease of nearly 11% in the “other procedures” category, dropping from 17,791 in 2019 to 15,902 in 2020. But just a year later this category climbed over 1500% from 15,902 in 2020 to 256,550 in 2021 — likely due to transgender services.
While this category isn’t broken down in national reports, at the affiliate level, some Planned Parenthood centers provide data on transgender services, which Live Action News will analyze in a future article.
