Just months after being pushed out as Planned Parenthood’s president, Leana Wen is accusing the abortion giant of hypocrisy and attempted intimidation.
Wen was fired in July after leading Planned Parenthood for less than a year. In a 1,400-word bombshell letter to Planned Parenthood’s board of directors, Wen accused the executives of holding her severance and health insurance “ransom” in exchange for a confidentiality agreement.
“No amount of money can ever buy my integrity and my commitment to the patients I serve,” Dr. Wen wrote in the letter, obtained by the New York Times.
Planned Parenthood has claimed that Wen’s exit was the result of disagreements over her management style, but Wen has long held that a “vocal minority,” many of whom sit on the board of directors, “prefer a stridently political, abortion-first philosophy,” and didn’t like Wen’s decision to place the emphasis instead on women’s healthcare.
Putting abortion on the back burner “is the best way to protect it,” Wen said. The board disagreed and fired her, and the result has been a long, contentious negotiation that exposes Planned Parenthood for what it is: a manipulative organization whose main business is abortion and abortion advocacy, which only pretends to be a champion for women’s health.
“It is deeply hypocritical [that Planned Parenthood] would attempt to enforce a gag order on its immediate past President/CEO while fighting the Trump administration’s gag rule on Title X providers,” Wen wrote. She was referring to Planned Parenthood’s recent exit from the Title X family planning program, which awards federal family planning funding only to organizations that do not perform or refer abortions.
Wen is right. If the goal is actually health-related, then pushing an aggressive and radical pro-choice agenda down Americans’ throats is not a winning strategy. Already, more than 61% of Americans support restrictions on abortions, with even larger majorities wanting to ban third-trimester abortions. And 48% of voters support legislation to withhold taxpayer funds from Planned Parenthood as long as it continues to provide abortions.
The culture is changing, and so is the political infrastructure. The Trump administration has already removed one of Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded crutches by giving the organization an ultimatum: stop servicing abortions or exit Title X. Planned Parenthood chose to exit the program, demonstrating where its real goals lie.
Planned Parenthood has claimed the government’s ultimatum was a deliberate attack on women’s rights. But Planned Parenthood doesn’t care about women’s rights, and it certainly doesn’t care about women. After all, this is the same organization withholding healthcare and salary benefits from its former female president, who suffered a miscarriage right before her exit, and is now expecting a child.
Wen knew that Planned Parenthood was in trouble. She attempted to rehabilitate its image and make healthcare its priority. But healthcare has never been Planned Parenthood’s priority. It’s just a tool Planned Parenthood uses to get what it wants, whether that’s federal funding or Wen’s silence. But the Trump administration isn’t going to give in, and neither will Wen.
