A recent Fox News report from May 8 attacks women, Planned Parenthood, and the LGBT community all at once, and reported that Planned Parenthood started offering sex change services to make up for the revenue the clinic has “lost” since it stopped “selling baby body parts.” Fox News regularly misleads readers and viewers with false reports, and refuses to retract or correct anything, but this particular report is a new low for the outlet.
False Narratives
The report not only furthers a completely debunked narrative, but it also furthers a completely manufactured controversy using manufactured fake facts – that trans-inclusive businesses and the transgender community as a whole makes others unsafe, especially when they use “our” bathrooms.
The Fox News falsely reports that,
“Planned Parenthood has found a new niche that could prove nearly as controversial as providing abortions: helping transgendered people through the sex-change process.”
It then goes on to detail how Planned Parenthood supposedly decided to offer hormone replacement therapies to help transgender patients transition during the sex change process. Further, the report claims the clinic did this intending to make up for the lost revenue resulting from its decision to no longer accept reimbursements for fetal tissue donations.
The Real Hormone Therapy Deal
The “niche” as Fox News calls it is hardly new, as Media Matters reports. It’s actually a well-documented and accepted form of treatment, and has been for over 50 years now for transgender transitions. Hormone therapy is administered to transgender people before, during and after their transitions from one sex to the other and is approved by the American Medical Association.
It also just so happens that Planned Parenthood just happens to offer hormone therapy at clinics in 10 states – to all humans, but they do have specific trans-inclusive policies, although the treatments are used for a variety of conditions in men and women as well, according to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Treatable conditions include multiple pituitary, thyroid, ovarian and prostate conditions, as well as menopause, among others.
We're proud to now offer #Transgender health services! Learn more about all of our new services here: https://t.co/pxUfGwRwJl
— Planned Parenthood (@PPGreatPlains) April 22, 2016
Fox News likely targeted the transgender community because conservatives are hysterical over the trans community’s right to use of the bathroom that fits their identities. It’s a supposed safety issue, but the real issue is the discrimination and violence experienced by the transgender community ever since conservatives manufactured this controversy.
Why Attack Hormone Services?
The conservatives on Fox News, Republicans, and the religious right are pissed that they got their asses handed to them over the non-existent “baby body parts” issue David Daleiden created when he broke the law to doctor videos that claimed Planned Parenthood was selling aborted fetal tissue for profit. In reality, several state and federal investigations found no wrong doing on the part of Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards or any of the clinics.
Several courts – state and federal alike – actually sided with Planned Parenthood in Republican-led states’ efforts to defund the clinics, and a Texas Grand Jury even went so far as to clear the clinic, but indicted Daleiden instead.
Planned Parenthood announced it would stop accepting legal reimbursements for fetal tissue donations regardless of the findings, but that didn’t stop Republican led states from being “outraged,” or the hate from being spewed.
In fact, that Fox News report actually claims Planned Parenthood all of a sudden offers trans-inclusive hormone therapy services to make up for that “lost revenue.” Again, this couldn’t be further from the truth. As Media Matters points out, the clinic’s hormone therapy services and fetal tissue donations make up less than one percent of Planned parenthood services. Neither of these services are essential to the organization’s bottom line.
Real Safety Issues
The real safety issue is the way conservatives painted a target on the back of transgender people everywhere, and how they’ve suffered violence and discrimination as a result. Folks pretend to “know” whether a person is in the “right” bathroom or not, much like how people n the 1970s and 1980s pretended to have “gaydar” because they can tell who is gay by how they look. Come on, really?
Try as they might, conservatives are losing the War on Women. They’ve got to do something to keep it alive, so it’s only natural that Fox News and the religious right would attack Planned Parenthood over its trans-inclusive services.
Especially since the clinics refuse to close its doors or discriminate against the LGBT community makes them the perfect target. Too bad it won’t work – again.
Check Out Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards Schooling Congressional Republicans:
Featured Image: Screenshot By Fox News Via Facebook.
