Planned Parenthood was on the recieving end of major social media backlash after they promoted a cartoon appealing to children that they should take puberty blockers if they are questioning their assigned gender at birth.
The video, posted to the organization’s YouTube channel earlier this year but recieved more attention after a post on Twitter from group Inside the Classroom, reports Fox.
Puberty blocker ad put out by Planned Parenthood, which tells children that they can get puberty blockers to “put their puberty on hold” pic.twitter.com/yjHXpevEMk
— 👁 Inside The Classroom (@EITC_Official) October 3, 2022
The video tells young viewer that it’s normal to be confused about their gender, and that it is also normal for people to receive hormone replacement therapy or medical procedures to help them feel more comfortable with their gender identity or “how they feel inside about themselves.”
“If you’re transgender or nonbinary, you may find that your puberty experiences don’t line up with your gender identity or how you see yourself,” the narrator says.
The video also tells young viewers that puberty blockers delay the onset of ones bodily changes so that they can decide whether they feel more comfortable with their gender identity.
“And they work like a stop sign, by holding the hormones testosterone and estrogen that cause puberty changes like facial hair growth and periods,” the video says, telling children to speak with a “trusted adult and a nurse or doctor.”
The Planned Parenthood website states about puberty blockers: “If you’re transgender, intersex, or nonbinary, puberty may feel especially hard. Sometimes during puberty the changes going on in your body might not line up with your gender identity. If that sounds like you, know that you’re not alone.
“Your gender identity is real, and there are medical treatments you can use to help your body better reflect who you are. Some young trans, intersex, and gender nonbinary people may decide to take puberty blockers after talking about it with their parents or guardian and a nurse or doctor. Puberty blockers are medicines that prevent puberty from happening. They work by blocking the hormones — testosterone and estrogen — that lead to puberty-related changes in your body. This stops things like periods and breast growth, or voice-deepening and facial hair growth.”
