Laverne Cox Reminds the World That Planned Parenthood Also Offers Trans Health Care

Whenever Planned Parenthood is mentioned, it’s generally in the context of abortion, even though abortion services make up only 3% of what it actually does. But Planned Parenthood is incredibly important because it offers a wide variety of sexual health and women’s health services. And, as Laverne Cox pointed out last week, Planned Parenthood helps all women: Trans health care at Planned Parenthood provides a number of services including hormone therapy in 20 states.

On May 1, Planned Parenthood held a gala to honor both their outgoing president, Cecile Richards, and Laverne Cox. Cox used her time on the dais to praise the trans health care at Planned Parenthood. She said:

The fight for health care is so intimately tied to the health of transgender people. I’m so excited to stand before you this evening because I wanted to shout out to the world that Planned Parenthood is a welcoming place for transgender people. I travel the country and meet transgender people all over who do not have access to life-saving health care.

Access to transgender health care is a real problem: 31% of trans Americans don’t have access to health care and 20% report “often” experiencing discrimination from their doctor or clinic. And, unfortunately, things may get worse. The Trump administration is working on changing the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) to roll back discrimination protections for transgender Americans.

Cox spoke about that, too, saying, “If that rollback happens, it’s going to affect women of all kinds. It’s going to affect transgender people, so we are in this fight together whether we want to be or not.”

Thank you, Laverne Cox, for the reminder that when we stand with Planned Parenthood, we stand with our trans brothers and sisters. Work like this is why Hornet was proud to partner with Planned Parenthood on a series about consent.

Do you have any experience with trans health care at Planned Parenthood? Let us know your story in the comments!

Featured image by Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images