Why an Attack on Planned Parenthood Is an Attack on Transgender People
The Trump administration’s anti-abortion “gag rule” has repercussions far beyond pregnancy-related health care.
by Gillian Branstetter
Through all the disorder of the Trump presidency, few things have remained as consistent as its unrelenting war on the health and well-being of transgender people. Whether it’s stripping away protections for us in health care or endangering the lives of people held in federal prisons, this disorganized administration seems to only get its act together when it has the opportunity to do irreparable damage to the progress we’ve made.
Its latest salvo in that fight is a direct assault on our access to safe and affirming health care. The Trump-Pence administration is set to deny federal funds to doctors and hospitals by banning any mention of abortion when dealing with patients. Otherwise known as a “gag rule,” the regulation would force doctors, nurses, hospitals, and clinics to decide between the needs of their patients and the federal funds provided to them under Title X.
The gag rule will have an outsized impact on the 4,000 reproductive health centers who need Title X. With these funds, clinics provide contraception to over 4 million Americans, a service for which they received over $286 million in grants from the federal government in 2016.
Denying those funds, as the Trump administration is set on doing, will only increase the burden these clinics face in providing a variety of treatments to low-income and rural populations. The war on people’s right to safe and legal abortions has likewise damaged the access of millions to standard check-ups like cancer screenings, STD tests, and family planning provided for by Title X.
But for the nearly 2 million transgender people in the US, the gag rule could also restrict services at the few health care providers able and trained to provide transgender-specific care. Planned Parenthood alone offers hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, at over 100 of its clinics spread across 17 states, making it one of largest providers of transition-related care in the United States.
The new rule by the Trump administration will have its heaviest impact on Planned Parenthood, Although the nonprofit provider has only 13 percent of Title X clinics, it treats 41 percent of Title X patients.
As Planned Parenthood has noted, the removal of the Title X funding by the Trump administration could force them to restrict some services and eliminate others altogether. The loss or limitation of Planned Parenthood as a provider of transition-related care — and the many reproductive health centers who offer the same — would worsen the already considerably miserable health care landscape transgender people face today.
According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, 78 percent of transgender people want hormone replacement therapy, but only 49 percent have received it. The most critical barrier to HRT for many is cost, but so is a lack of suitable options.
Reproductive health centers like Planned Parenthood often bridge the gap in low-income neighborhoods, offering a simple solution for the one in three transgender people who have declined to see a doctor because of cost.
It’s also the sole provider of HRT in many rural areas, hopefully shortening the travel distance for people between appointments and opening up their access to life-saving care. According to the USTS, 65 percent of transgender people receiving HRT have to travel 10 miles or more to access it, and transgender people are three times as likely to have to travel 50 miles for transition-related care than they do for routine primary care.
In Small Towns, Planned Parenthood Fills A Need For Transgender Health Services
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Because Planned Parenthood has so many locations in rural areas and low-income neighborhoods, it fills a massive gap faced by transgender people in our healthcare system. And it’s a role the organization takes seriously — the number of Planned Parenthood clinics offering HRT increased by 80 percent from 2013 to 2015.
Planned Parenthood has also taken major strides towards helping transgender people in need of routine and primary care. As the organization states in its LGBTQ resources, “whether you’re gay or straight, trans, or cis, you can come to us for cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, birth control, and other health care services.”
Such affirmative policies at such a large and widespread provider are crucial for transgender people at a time we still find ourselves forced to educate doctors and hospital staff about our own care. Transgender people are routinely subjected to invasive and unnecessary questions by health care providers or insurance companies unfamiliar with transgender people or the necessity of transition-related care.
Many transgender people — one third of USTS respondents — have even declined to seek treatment from a provider out of fear of facing ignorance or harassment. And that fear is particularly strong when it comes to tests and treatments that are considered “gender-specific.”
Without providers like Planned Parenthood, transgender people could be left with fewer options for family planning — including birth control. With access to affordable and safe birth control, transgender men and non-binary people can regulate or prevent their menstrual cycles, reducing dysphoria-inducing symptoms and their chances of becoming pregnant. It’s an important and vital method used by many transgender people to obtain autonomy over their bodies and their lives.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because transgender people want the same liberty and independence that affirming health care providers grant to all of their patients. Reproductive health centers like Planned Parenthood have led the way in giving many marginalized communities control over their health care, their lives, and their future — and they do it all by putting the patient first.
Which is precisely the opposite of the intent of the Trump administration’s gag rule. The administration has made zero effort to address how denying funds to providers who even mention abortion will impact patient access, and can only cite divisive, partisan dogmas in its banal attempts to justify this and all other attacks on the transgender community and the nation’s other most vulnerable communities.
Transgender people already know the administration wavers between disregard and outright hostility to our well-being. But through all of the chaos — the scandals and investigations and constant breaking news — a theme is becoming clear. The administration is waging a concerted war on our well-being, and reproductive health clinics could soon be its next casualty.
Gillian Branstetter is the media relations manager at NCTE.
