{"id":192945,"date":"2018-12-20T07:30:46","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T13:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=192945"},"modified":"2018-12-19T18:31:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T00:31:59","slug":"nashville-planned-parenthood-why-abortions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/nashville-planned-parenthood-why-abortions\/","title":{"rendered":"Nashville Planned Parenthood staffers reveal why they stopped abortions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Planned Parenthood staffers in Tennessee are crying foul over claims<\/a>\u00a0that abortions at its Nashville facility were suspended<\/a> due to\u00a0a shortage of abortion providers or “changes in staff<\/a>.” Instead, employees claim that Planned Parenthood’s mismanagement and prioritization of profits over patients were to blame. The Nashville abortion facility is operated by\u00a0the newly formed Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM) affiliate, a June 2018 merger between\u00a0Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region and Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee.<\/p>\n

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Planned Parenthood Nashville suspends abortion (Image: Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n

Planned Parenthood spokesperson Tereva Parham, told<\/a> media outlets, “[W]e\u2019re undergoing a period of quality improvement.\u201d However, the alleged “quality improvement” seemed to only apply to abortions and not other services.\u00a0 “It is just our abortion services that are temporarily being halted in Nashville,\u201d Parham told<\/a> NashvilleScene.com.<\/p>\n

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Tereva Parham (Image: LinkedIn)<\/p><\/div>\n

Curious about the suspension, journalists at the Nashville\u00a0Scene\u00a0reached out to four Planned Parenthood staffers, who reportedly spoke “under the condition of anonymity due to fear of facing retaliation.” They\u00a0claimed<\/a> the alleged “quality improvement” was a “euphemism for replacing employees who pushed back on troublesome policy changes with new ones who will be more compliant.” This claim appears valid, as a follow-up email sent by the Scene<\/em>\u00a0to Parham received the reply, \u201cBe advised, Tereva Parham<\/a> is no longer employed at Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Nashville\u2019s last abortion facility has stopped committing abortions\u2026 for now<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In speaking with Planned Parenthood staffers, the Scene discovered that “Nashville outpost\u2019s affiliate had been in dire financial straits” for some time, and that “the merger kicked off a series of changes that Nashville staffers say interfered with their mission as they saw it.” Specifically, the Scene learned that money was driving the abortion center. The report states there were “[a] number of recent policy changes at the clinic that they perceived as being designed to prioritize money over patients.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like everything they did was money-motivated, not motivated by [concern for] the patient,\u201d one staffer told the\u00a0Scene.<\/p>\n

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Planned Parenthood Nashville, TN. (Image: Yelp)<\/p><\/div>\n

Staffers accused the abortion corporation of canceling loan programs for patients. According to the Scene, “Staffers say this led patients to delay their appointments to come up with money and thus, in some cases, have abortions later in their pregnancies….” According to the report, Planned Parenthood was “rushing women into an abortion” and staffers were told to charge abortion patients for previously included IV sedation, forcing some abortion patients to go without the medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t trust them to hire anyone who cared,\u201d one staff member stated.<\/p>\n

But it gets worse.<\/p>\n

The Scene was told that\u00a0“<\/em>New management stopped providing doctors with sterile gloves and, staffers say, wanted to use small plastic drinking cups for urine samples.” As a result, “Doctors and health care assistants started leaving. During one three-week stretch not long ago, three doctors left the clinic.” But despite these abuses, “Some doctors and staff were willing to stay on providing abortion services, even if it was on a part-time basis….”<\/p>\n

Other media outlets<\/a>\u00a0blamed the discontinuation of abortion at the facility on pro-lifers, the Scene dug\u00a0deeper and exposed that the real reason was internal dysfunction at Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n

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Planned Parenthood staffers in TN allege mismanagement (Image: NashvilleScene.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Eyewitness accusations of abuses<\/a>\u00a0or mismanagement<\/a> at the abortion corporation are not new.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Health services down, abortion and profits up: Why Planned Parenthood shouldn\u2019t get taxpayer funding<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Below are a few examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood of Delaware staffers claimed<\/a> that their\u00a0facility<\/a> was similar<\/a> to one operated by Kermit Gosnell, and say their complaints to leadership about mistreatment of abortion patients and the abortionist’s sexually abusive conduct were ignored.\u00a0A Philadelphia ABC6\u00a0report<\/a> noted:<\/p>\n

“He didn’t wear gloves,” said [nurse, Jayne Mitchell-] Werbrich.<\/p>\n

Another former employee, Joyce Vasikonis, told Action News, “They were using instruments on patients that were not sterile.”<\/p>\n

The former nurses claim that a rush to get patients in and out left operating tables soiled and unclean.<\/p>\n

Werbrich said, “It’s not washed down, it’s not even cleaned off. It has bloody drainage on it.”<\/p>\n

“They could be at risk of getting hepatitis, even AIDS,” added Vasikonis.<\/p>\n

Both of these nurses said they quit to protect their own medical licenses, stunned by what they called a meat-market style of assembly-line abortions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n