Planned Parenthood waded into the transgender business some time ago and has been aiding teenagers with the transition process. They are doing so without any of the normal safeguards one might expect. One case in particular, that of a young man referred to as “Fred,” sheds a lot of light on Planned Parenthood’s process.
Fred has a history of developmental issues. He was diagnosed with autism—technically ADHD with autistic traits—at age four, struggled with depression and anxiety as he got older, and was expelled from three different special-needs schools due to behavioral problems, stemming in part from an impulse control disorder. He is an 18-year-old high school student in New Jersey and lives with his parents, who asked the Washington Free Beacon to withhold his real name.
Like many people on the autism spectrum, Fred cycles through obsessions and extreme views. He was part of an alt-right group chat as recently as last year, his parents said, but apostatized suddenly and now considers himself far left.
Still, Fred has a few interests that have remained constant throughout his life, all fairly typical for a teenage boy: guns, power tools, and metalworking. That made it all the more shocking when, in December 2022, at 17 years old, he announced he was a transgender woman.
Fred’s parents tried to enroll him in a local Gender and Autism program, a program that specializes in dealing with, counseling, and treating autistic youths. But Fred turned 18 and was unwilling to wait through the local clinic’s one-year waiting list. Planned Parenthood was more than willing to accommodate Fred:
In late July, while his parents were out of town and after he had come of age, Fred went to Planned Parenthood, which prescribes hormones to any legal adult without a letter from a therapist or a formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The only requirement is a brief consultation, usually with a nurse practitioner, about the drugs’ effects, which range from mood swings and male pattern baldness to permanent infertility.
How brief? Fred arrived at his local clinic, on North Fullerton Ave. in Montclair, New Jersey, at around 11:00 a.m., according to phone tracking data his parents used to monitor his whereabouts. By 11:39, they received a text message from CVS: Fred’s estrogen prescription was on its way. Instead of a months-long evaluation by expert psychiatrists, a nurse practitioner had, in little over 30 minutes, prescribed their special-needs son a powerful drug without their knowledge or consent.
Granted, “Fred” was no longer a minor at this point and was legally able to make his own medical decision. But it’s something of an understatement to say that it’s unwise for a young person, minor or not, to make these kinds of decisions based on 38 minutes of “consultation.” Especially when that young person has other mental and emotional issues—in this case, autism.
Fred’s mother, as it happens, is a healthcare provider herself and is speaking out about the issue and her son’s experience:
“It’s criminal what Planned Parenthoods all over the country are doing,” Fred’s mother, a New Jersey pediatrician, said. “And most people have no idea this is happening.”
Fred’s parents have filed a formal complaint with the New Jersey nursing and medical boards; you can review a redacted version of that complaint here.
This is not the first story we have seen lately involving transgender providers rushing youths into this life-changing decision. In Missouri, that state Attorney General is suing a transgender clinic for neglect of patient safety, while across the country school teachers and staff are trying to hide their advocacy of “trans” youths from those youths’ parents.
It’s important to note that the strongest advocates for free and unquestioned (not to mention irreversible and life-changing) gender-transition treatments and procedures are many of the same people who argue for raising the age for gun purchases to 21 or even older, claiming that those young people are not yet mature enough to handle a firearm – but they are, presumably, mature enough to attempt to change sex.
It’s also important to note that the physicians involved in this process would seem to be in violation of the Hippocratic Oath – especially the part that says, “First, do no harm.”
