Cristina Hineman was an autistic 18-year-old suffering from social isolation exacerbated by the lockdowns and swayed by YouTubers into thinking gender transition might be right for her.
HUDSON, New York (LifeSiteNews) – While best known for abortion, Planned Parenthood is also deeply invested in the gender “transition” business, and its diversification has recently gained it a lawsuit from a young autistic woman it gave testosterone after a mere half-hour of consultation.
On August 7, The Free Press published the story of Cristina Hineman, who upon turning 18 in November 2021 went to a New York Planned Parenthood location to obtain the testosterone therapy she sought without the consent of her parents.
She had been dealing with a variety of issues, including self-harm, depression, anxiety, and autism, many of which were exacerbated by the social isolation of the COVID-19 lockdowns, and recalls being turned on to the possibility that gender was at the source from YouTube videos that led her to conclude, “trans includes all the things I’ve been feeling — my discomfort with my chest, my discomfort with being called ‘young woman,’ not being sure of who I was or what I wanted to be.”
After completing a consent form, answering a few questions, and going over “expected changes” from the hormone – a process taking less than 30 minutes – Hineman was given a prescription for testosterone gel. But after a year of hormone therapy as well as removal of her healthy breasts at age 19, Hineman regrets her transition.
“I was brainwashed,” she said. “A lot of people say that adults should be able to do whatever they want. But if you have mental illness that’s clouding your view, or you’re so misinformed about what gender dysphoria even means, then you cannot consent to such invasive treatments.”
Hineman says she remains left-of-center and in favor of legal abortion, but she is suing Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the PP staffers behind her consultation and prescription, the therapists who encouraged her transition, and the surgeon who performed her double mastectomy for negligence and failure to obtain informed consent.
“There’s a real belief among these plaintiffs and lawyers that this is the great medical scandal of our times,” said attorney Jordan Campbell, who is representing Hineman.
“Treatment without a competent evaluation shouldn’t be foisted on you whether you’re 15 or 30,” added attorney Kevin Keller, who is donating his expertise on other similar lawsuits across America. “Vulnerability is the issue. If there’s no comprehensive screening in place before a medical intervention that’s going to have permanent effects,” that’s a breach of duty, he argues.
A significant body of evidence shows that “affirming” gender confusion carries serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them, or full knowledge about the long-term effects of life-altering, physically transformative, and often-irreversible surgical and chemical procedures.
Studies find that more than 80% of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, and that even full “reassignment” surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide — and may even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
Many oft-ignored “detransitioners,” individuals who attempted to live under a different “gender identity” before embracing their sex, attest to the physical and mental harm of reinforcing gender confusion, as well as to the bias and negligence of the medical establishment on the subject, many of whom take an activist approach to their profession and begin cases with a predetermined conclusion that “transitioning” is the best solution.
“Gender-affirming” physicians have also been caught on video admitting to more old-fashioned motives for such procedures, as with a 2022 exposé about Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Clinic for Transgender Health, where Dr. Shayne Sebold Taylor said outright that “these surgeries make a lot of money.”
While Planned Parenthood is best known as the nation’s largest abortion chain, it is also deeply involved in the LGBT movement. It advertises itself as a “safe and welcoming place to get transgender/nonbinary hormone therapy (sic),” including estrogen, anti-androgen, testosterone, and puberty blockers.
According to the abortion giant’s most recent annual report, 45 of its affiliates offered so-called “gender-affirming hormone therapy” in 2022. Its previous report said 30 affiliates participated in 69 medical studies, an unspecified number of which involved so-called “care” to reinforce gender dysphoria.
