How defunding Planned Parenthood could wipe out transgender healthcare

Calvin Kasulke was living with his parents when he came out to them as a transgender man. All of a sudden, he recalled gingerly, “I was disinvited from living at home.”

He needed a new place to stay. And Ithaca, New York, where he had gone to college, was the obvious choice. He would have friends there, he figured, and a place to live.

“And also,” he said, “Planned Parenthood was there.”

Unbeknown to many, Planned Parenthood is one of the largest sources in the US of transgender healthcare. The embattled provider offers hormone replacement therapy, which helps a person’s body appear more masculine or feminine, at dozens of its locations, and a growing share of its staff are trained to perform routine sexual health exams for trans patients.

“They are one of the most important providers of trans healthcare in the country,” said Harper Jean Tobin, the director of policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality, adding that their clinics are some of the few transgender healthcare providers located outside major cities. “Many of their clinics are the only places for miles around that trans people can go to for hormone therapy, HIV tests, and pap smears, and not face discrimination.”

With Congress on the brink of attempting to defund Planned Parenthood because of its role as an abortion provider, those services could easily be caught in the crossfire. Each year, Planned Parenthood is reimbursed hundreds of millions of dollars for family planning services it provides at little or no cost to low-income Americans. If Congress were to freeze Planned Parenthood out of those funding streams, it could force an unknown number of health centers to close. Health providers have long warned that this would have a detrimental impact on women’s health. But, Tobin said, the cuts could be particularly “disastrous” for trans people.

“As it is getting more real, in the back of my head I said, ‘Oh shit. What am I going to do now?’” said Raven Green, a patient of Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes. “I don’t know where else I would go.”

The state of transgender healthcare in the US is already a fragile one. In one survey after another, large numbers of transgender people report difficulty accessing both basic and specialized services because of biased providers or the distance to the nearest provider with adequate knowledge of trans health issues. Only about two-thirds of trans people who want hormone replacement therapy, a common treatment during gender transition, have actually received it, according to a major survey of transgender adults taken in 2015, and 23% have avoided getting essential care out of fear of harassment. Thirty-three percent have had a negative experience with a healthcare provider, like needing to teach their doctor the fundamentals of transgender care. And 29% reported having to travel at least 25 miles for transition-related care.

The result is that thousands go without care every year.

“Everything is stacked against trans people” in the healthcare system, said Casulke, who now volunteers with Planned Parenthood part-time. “There’s always an extra layer of, am I going to have to educate my own provider? Is it safe to come out to this person? You’re having to advocate for yourself in a really vulnerable situation.”

Planned Parenthood in recent years has sought to address that problem. And it has made its clinics a magnet for thousands with few other options. Starting with Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes, in upstate New York, a growing number of its health centers have become places where trans people can begin to transition medically, as well as get basic reproductive services. Its centers use a newer model for gender transitioning that gives the patient input on whether to start their transition, rather than turning the decision over entirely to a psychiatrist. Some clinics have staff with detailed knowledge of how to update driver’s licenses, passports and social security cards to reflect someone’s name and gender.

“It’s this little oasis in the middle of nowhere,” said Luca Maurer, the program director for Ithaca College’s LGBT center. His center has a partnership with Planned Parenthood. Previously, he said, many trans students and locals would drive to Manhattan or Philadelphia, at least four hours each way, for prescriptions and the routine checkups that accompany gender transition. A handful even crossed the Canadian border for treatment in Toronto.

Luca Maurer, the program directors for Ithaca College’s LGBT center, which partners with Planned Parenthood. Photograph: Jenn Foy Photography

“If I didn’t have them available to me, I’m not sure what I would do,” said Maurer, who is trans. “It would be a crisis. And I’m saying this as a person whose job it is to help others navigate healthcare systems.”

Upstate New York is a microcosm of the hurdles facing transgender people when it comes to medical care. In 2015, LGBT healthcare providers surveyed local trans people and learned that 57% had run into barriers because there were not enough providers trained to address their needs. A full quarter had been turned away by one of their doctors. Without the Planned Parenthood in Ithaca, there would be limited places for several hundred trans patients to turn. The only local endocrinologist, who specializes in hormonal therapy, is not able to absorb so many new patients. And a local primary care doctor who offers transgender care is near capacity.

The need is not limited to transgender-specific care. Doctors and other healthcare providers frequently refuse to treat trans people for conditions having nothing to do with their gender identity – what trans rights activists have sardonically termed “trans broken arm syndrome”.

In Florida, where Planned Parenthood recently began to offer transgender care at about a dozen of its health centers, some of the group’s physicians are offering trans patients basic treatments for diabetes, high blood pressure and the common cold.

Gina Duncan, an advocate with Equality Florida, said Planned Parenthood’s affiliates in Florida have been instrumental in pushing other providers to acquire the knowledge to care for trans patients. “Where Planned Parenthood has filled such a huge gap, is it’s a known, reliable, quality source for healthcare,” Duncan said.

In that region, too, Planned Parenthood is the major provider to trans people of hormone replacement therapy and general care.

Dinah, a trans woman who did not want her real name printed, used to drive 120 miles round-trip every time she needed basic blood work before the Planned Parenthood in her city began to offer hormone therapy.

“We have patients who are grateful that they only have to drive two hours,” said Dr Suzie Prabhakaran, the vice-president of medical services for Planned Parenthood of south-west and central Florida. The 11 health centers Prabhakaran oversees began offering hormone replacement therapy in October and are now treating 80 patients and counting. Four out of every five are starting hormone therapy for the first time.

As Planned Parenthood comes under fire, the prospect of possibly losing those services is throwing patients into turmoil.

Dinah says the care she has received at Planned Parenthood has been lifesaving. Recently, she worked up the courage to schedule her first physical in years. It was her first such exam since her transition, and during the breast cancer screening, she began to cry.

“It’s another thing that makes it real,” she said. “It meant that I’m a woman and I have to be treated like one.”

How defunding Planned Parenthood could wipe out transgender healthcare

Mandatory Memory Wipe – California Senate Bill No. 86

“Mandatory Memory Wipe”

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – State Senator Richard Pan, (D), architect of California’s notorious SB-277, (mandatory school vaccination), today proposed SB-86, which calls for mandatory erasure of all painful “memories, thoughts, and emotions” from the memory banks of all school age children.

Proponents of the bill seek to protect children.  But critics, who dub it the “mandatory memory wipe,” believe it’s a diabolical scheme to plunge society farther into the more dimly lit regions of the darkside.  Many believe the radical procedure is unreasonably dangerous.

SB-86 Summary

If it becomes law, SB-86 will require: “Mandatory elimination, eradication, and removal of all brain matter that may contain painful memories, thoughts, or emotions that might cause potential harm to children.”  Ironically, in popular jargon, the term “to 86” something means to eliminate, eradicate, or remove it.

No Opt-Out – No Exemption – No Informed Consent 

The bill does not allow for children to opt-out of the procedure, except for the children of State lawmakers and judges who may opt-out.  The bill recognizes no medical exemptions.

Under the bill, the actual “wiping” procedure is deemed to be a “non-medical” event, and therefore, informed consent is not required – nor is a medical license – for the State to administer the “wipe.”

Similarities to Orwell’s 1984

Critics are quick to remark that SB-86 feels a bit like Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which the protagonist, Mr. Smith, works at the government’s propaganda agency, the Ministry of Truth, which they humorously call “Minitrue.”  Mr. Smith’s job is to re-write newspaper articles – so they conform to the current political landscape.  “Who controls the past controls the future.”

When Facts Cease to Exist

In a future world where nobody remembers that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves or that George Washington chopped down the cherry tree, then factually speaking, these events never occurred.  They cease to exist.

Soon, nobody will remember that, back in the 50s and 60s, many brave American mothers would throw “measles parties.”  Sadly, over time, the wisdom and success of these parties may eventually go extinct, especially if internet search engines continue to display nothing but industry-slanted search results – which unanimously warn against the (supposed) dangers of “measles parties.”

Nobody remembers that medical protocol once considered it harmful to vaccinate a child with eczema.  Sadly, modern pediatricians have forgotten this former protocol, and it may soon go extinct because the CDC no longer objects to vaccinating children with eczema.

Today, too few people remember that smallpox met its demise – not by vaccines or indoor plumbing – but because the once-deadly variola virus simply fizzled itself out after having mutated into variola minor, a less-hardy strain, (aka “mild smallpox”), which was then pronounced eradicated a few decades later.

Inner Ear Extraction Method

A hypodermic syringe is inserted into the inner ear, where substances are not injected, but extracted.  The syringe extracts, from the temporal lobe, certain memory substances which then exit the body as a foamy goo – a slimy, jellylike substance that was once the patient’s memories, thoughts, and emotions.

Because the procedure targets the temporal lobe, it extracts only “long-term” memories, while leaving “short-term” memories intact, thus allowing the children to continue performing their daily routines.

But the question arises:  After extracting the gelatinous substance – which holds the children’s deepest, darkest memories – what will the State then do with it?  Safely dispose of it?  Store it in liquid nitrogen?  Or harvest the foamy goo for nefarious medical research?

Enter Revolt Revoke Restore! 

Enter revoltrevokerestore.com – and the unsinkable Sharon Brown – who oppose the tyranny of SB-86!  Brown explains: “The State may not mandate medical procedures known to be unavoidably unsafe.”  The group’s attorney, T. Matthew Phillips, added: “Freedom means nothing if you can’t keep the government out of your body.”  The bill is now in the Senate Thought Police Committee.

~~T. Matthew Phillips, Esq. (Feb. 24, 2017)

Mandatory Memory Wipe – California Senate Bill No. 86

Mosquitoes modified to only give birth to males in bid to wipe out malaria

It is hoped that if this could be replicated in the wild, the technique would in the end lead to the malaria-carrying mosquito population to die out inside a couple of generations.

Dr Nikolai Windbichler, a lead researcher from the Division of Existence Sciences at Imperial School London, stated: “What is most promising about our final results is that they are self-sustaining.

“When modified mosquitoes are introduced, males will begin to produce largely sons, and their sons will do the exact same, so essentially the mosquitoes carry out the operate for us.”

Though scientists have bred infertile mosquitos before, this is the very first time they have been capable to manipulate the sex ratios of mosquito populations.

It is only the female mosquito that bites as it feeds on blood to get the protein it requirements for their eggs.

The scientists launched the genetically modified mosquitoes to 5 caged wild-kind mosquito populations. In four of the 5 cages, this eliminated the complete population inside of six generations, since of the lack of females.

Malaria is one particular of Africa’s deadliest diseases, killing on regular one particular youngster each 60 seconds. Globally, there are a lot more than 200 million circumstances per year and much more than 650,000 deaths, largely in African kids underneath 5.

Considering that 2000, improved prevention and manage measures have reduced international malaria mortality charges by 42 per cent, but the ailment stays a prevalent killer as mosquitoes grow to be increasingly resistant to insecticides and malaria parasites resistant to medicines.

Dr Roberto Galizi from the Division of Life Sciences at Imperial University London, stated: “The investigation is even now in its early days, but I am actually hopeful that this new method could in the end lead to a cheap and effective way to eliminate malaria from entire areas. Our aim is to enable folks to reside freely with out the threat of this deadly condition.”

Throughout the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, scientists inserted a DNA cutting enzyme known as I-PpoI into Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes.

In typical reproduction, half of the sperm bear the X chromosome and will create female offspring, and the other half bear the Y chromosome and produce male offspring.

The enzyme utilized by the researchers operates by cutting the DNA of the X chromosome for the duration of manufacturing of sperm, so that nearly no functioning sperm carry the female X chromosome.

As a result the offspring of the genetically modified mosquitoes was nearly solely male.

Mosquitoes modified to only give birth to males in bid to wipe out malaria

New brain cells could wipe away previous memories, examine finds

“The locating was very surprising to us at first. Most men and women think new neurons indicate better memory,” mentioned Sheena Josselyn, a neuroscientist from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, who led the research.

Right up until now, numerous scientists have imagined long-phrase memories may possibly be tied to language simply because young children normally start off forming lengthy-phrase recollections at about the same time they start off talking.

“But the really weird factor is that most animals display infantile amnesia too,” said Josselyn.

“So the improvement of language can not be the total explanation.”

Inspired by observations of their personal toddler, Josselyn and her husband, examine coauthor Paul Frankland, started to query why young kids could not retain memories of scenarios or occasions.

The recollections involve the hippocampus, the only part of the brain which normally generates new neurons, which scientists feel is vital to make recollections.

But the manufacturing of these new cells tapers off in childhood.

“That’s precisely when we begin to be capable to kind prolonged-term recollections,” Josselyn explained.

Her research of mice, which like people fail to retailer early memories, showed the decline in the production of new neurons as the rodents grew up matched their capability to keep in mind frightening conditions.

Josselyn explained: “More neurons improve the capacity to learn new recollections in the potential

“But memory is based on a circuit, so if you add to this circuit, it helps make sense that it would disrupt it.”

She believes the newly additional neurons could have a beneficial position in clearing old recollections and creating way for new ones.

New brain cells could wipe away previous memories, examine finds