{"id":206694,"date":"2019-07-16T23:05:19","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T04:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=206694"},"modified":"2019-07-17T12:26:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T17:26:50","slug":"planned-parenthood-leana-wen-fighting-abortion-fired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/planned-parenthood-leana-wen-fighting-abortion-fired\/","title":{"rendered":"Planned Parenthood prez Leana Wen wasn’t fighting hard enough for abortion. So they fired her."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

There is more to the story regarding Planned Parenthood’s ousting of its president, Leana Wen, which includes her resistance to prioritizing abortion along with — according to reports — a significant decline in fundraising. Wen’s unexpected departure on July 16 was, as Wen put it on Twitter<\/a>, due to “philosophical differences over the direction and future of Planned Parenthood.” In a separate tweet<\/a>, \u00a0she said abortion should\u00a0“not be a political issue but a health care one.”<\/p>\n

In a letter<\/a>\u00a0to “colleagues” posted to Twitter<\/a>, Wen expounded further, writing, “The new Board leadership<\/strong> has determined that the priority of Planned Parenthood moving forward is to double down on abortion rights advocacy<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\"Image:

Leana Wen statement Planned Parenthood reals reason is abortion (Image Leana Wen Letter on Twitter 07-16-2019)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

According to a report published<\/a> by Buzzfeed, “Shortly after the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u00a0broke the news, Wen tweeted she had only just learned of her dismissal and that she and the board had been in the process of ‘good faith negotiations about my departure.'” Reportedly, “Wen and Planned Parenthood were involved in weeks of negotiations around her departure, and the board announced the meeting internally a week ago, according to a source familiar with the matter. Wen was told she could resign, the source said, but she would not.” In place of Wen, Planned Parenthood\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0Alexis McGill Johnson, a Planned Parenthood board member, will serve as “Acting President and CEO.”<\/p>\n

\"Image:

Alexis McGill Johnson PPFA Acting president (Image: PPFA)<\/p><\/div>\n

READ:\u00a0Washington Post: Four Pinocchios for Planned Parenthood lie on abortion deaths<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

BuzzFeed reports that several sources “named significant management issues as part of the board\u2019s decision to oust Wen,” claiming that, “At one point, Planned Parenthood\u2019s board hired an executive management coach to improve Wen\u2019s relationship with staff”:<\/p>\n

… One source familiar with the board\u2019s thinking said her removal was accelerated by the intensifying battle over abortion rights, saying that she was not the right leader in this climate…. Wen sometimes went through Planned Parenthood\u2019s press releases and documents, deleting the word \u201csexual\u201d from the phrase \u201csexual and reproductive health,\u201d<\/strong> the source said. She also resisted using the word \u201cabortion\u201d as a stand-alone term, preferring \u201cabortion care\u201d or other phrases entirely<\/strong>….<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Image:

Time headline on Leana Wen leaving PPFA 07162019 (Image Time Magazine)<\/p><\/div>\n

Abortion wasn’t the only issue, according to Buzzfeed. Its sources claimed that Wen “refused to use ‘trans-inclusive’ language,” such as refusing to say ‘people’ instead of ‘women.’ She reportedly told staff she believed talking about transgender issues would “isolate people in the Midwest.”<\/p>\n

Wen’s firing after attempting to reinvent Planned Parenthood as a legitimate health care provider isn’t new. In the 1990’s, as Live Action News previously<\/a> detailed, another president and former nurse, Pamela J. Maraldo, was forced to resigned after she rolled out a “reinvention plan” to focus more on actual health care than on abortion.<\/p>\n

Wen’s tweet<\/a>\u00a0mentioned “new board leadership” but did not specify who they were. It appears Wen’s “reorganizing” and adding actual health care employees — described by Buzzfeed<\/a>\u00a0as “a tight-knit group of people from the Baltimore Department of Health with whom she would constantly have ‘secret meetings’ without other staff” — may have upset the rank and file.<\/p>\n

\"Image:

Leana Wen Tweet w Letter about leaving PPFA 07162019<\/p><\/div>\n

“By the time the group announced its split with Wen… the list of top political staff departures neared the double digits…. A source familiar with the situation told BuzzFeed News that eventually the board looked up and realized nearly all the staff they knew and trusted were gone.”<\/p>\n

Wen “walked in and hired people in very senior leadership roles who knew nothing about Planned Parenthood,” a\u00a0former senior Planned Parenthood staffer told<\/a> Buzzfeed.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Nonsensical: Planned Parenthood prez tries to tie pro-life laws to cervical cancer and syphilis<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But Planned Parenthood has issues well before Wen arrived. Live Action News previously\u00a0documented<\/a>\u00a0that, “In\u00a02018,\u00a0political activist<\/a>\u00a0president Cecile\u00a0Richards suddenly\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0her resignation, followed by that of VP\u00a0Dawn Laguens<\/a>\u00a0and VP of Communications,\u00a0Kevin Griffis,<\/a>\u00a0among others.” Another\u00a0analysis<\/a>\u00a0detailed retiring staffers connected to the Center for Medical Progress’s undercover investigations into Planned Parenthood’s role in the trafficking of aborted baby body parts.<\/p>\n

Live Action News also discovered<\/a>\u00a0Planned Parenthood employees were exposing long-held secrets, inner workings, and toxic attitudes of the organization, including:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Planned Parenthood allegedly failed to pay employees a decent wage.<\/li>\n
  • Staff complained about alleged shoddy treatment.<\/li>\n
  • Planned Parenthood\u00a0whistleblowers<\/a>\u00a0exposed how\u00a0the corporation allegedly discriminates against pregnant employees.<\/li>\n
  • Planned Parenthood insiders exposed<\/a> how the corporation\u2019s leaders were allegedly prioritizing profits over care.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \"Image:

    New York Times’ article on how Planned Parenthood treats pregnant employees<\/p><\/div>\n

    Buzzfeed also suggested fundraising suffered under Wen, describing “a significant decline” and\u00a0claiming<\/a>\u00a0that when Wen took the job, she was unconcerned with \u201cthe long-term future of abortion access work that had already been going on, saying there was no budget for it.\u201d The source added that employees felt their experience was being ignored, and that employees cried in meetings with Wen.<\/p>\n

    Prioritizing abortion to make a significant windfall isn\u2019t new for Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n

      \n
    • \u00a0Alan F. Guttmacher,<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0physician and\u00a0former VP of the Eugenics Society, was obsessed with\u00a0population control<\/a>\u00a0and led the corporation to become an\u00a0abortion vendor<\/a>.<\/li>\n
    • \u00a0Faye Wattleton<\/a>, an African American female president of Planned Parenthood (chosen, many believe, to\u00a0quell suspicion<\/a>\u00a0of eugenics among the Black community), doubled down on promoting abortion.<\/li>\n
    • Cecile Richards, who had\u00a0no health care experience, supervised another surge of abortions, increased government funding and excess revenue, and increased\u00a0CEO salaries<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 all\u00a0while Planned Parenthood\u2019s actual health services and patients\u00a0plummeted<\/a>.\u00a0Richards\u2019 goal was to build the abortion corporation into the largest \u201ckick butt political organization<\/a>\u201d to reinforce Planned Parenthood\u2019s\u00a0cushy political alliances<\/a>. She presided over numerous scandals,\u00a0accusations of fraud<\/a>,\u00a0the cover-up of child sexual abuse<\/a>, and\u00a0much more<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Wen claims her goal was to put health care over political advocacy. “Over a year ago when I came to the search committee selecting Planned Parenthood’s next president,” Wen wrote in a letter she shared<\/a> on Twitter, “I posed this question: Did they see Planned Parenthood as an advocacy organization first, with medical services that are necessary to strengthen its impact or did they see Planned Parenthood as a health care organization first, with advocacy as a necessary vehicle to protect rights and access? For me, as a doctor and health care leader the answer was straightforward: providing essential primary and preventative care to millions of underserved women and families should always be the driving force of Planned Parenthood’s work.”<\/p>\n