Ex-Planned Parenthood president Dr. Leana Wen is not leaving the abortion-promoting organization quietly, saying her former employer is obsessed with “a stridently, political abortion-first philosophy.”
Wen has been sparring with Planned Parenthood since the group fired her in July. She is accusing the organization of “buying my silence” by holding out on her severance package and health insurance until she signs a confidentiality agreement, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Leana Wen, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood speaks during The Wall Street Journal’s Future Of Everything Festival at Spring Studios on May 20, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images)
Wen outlined her complaints in a long and angry letter to Planned Parenthood’s board of directors that the Times secured. (RELATED: Why Did Planned Parenthood Fire Leana Wen?)
“No amount of money can ever buy my integrity and my commitment to the patients I serve,” she wrote.
In her letter, Wen accused Planned Parenthood of being completely focussed on providing abortions while she suggested that a more holistic approach to birth control would be “the best way to protect” the abortion services. “However,” she went on, “there is a vocal minority” that occupy all key leadership and board positions “who prefer a stridently political, abortion-first philosophy.”
Planned Parenthood is ignoring the accusations and claims Wen was removed from her position because of her confrontational management style. Wen denies that allegation and says she was fired because she wanted to divert the group from being a political voice in the abortion debate to a less ideological source of women’s health care. (RELATED: Planned Parenthood ‘Grooms’ Girls For Abortions Using Sex Ed, Former Sex Educator Says)
Pro-choice activists, politicians and others associated with Planned Parenthood gather for a news conference and demonstration at City Hall against the Trump administrations title X rule change on February 25, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The infighting couldn’t come at a better time for pro-life forces who have fought for decades to have the agency stripped of its public funding as it actively promotes and provides abortion as another form of birth control. Former employees have spoken about how Planned Parenthood likes to “celebrate” abortion, even at the expense of women’s health.
President Donald Trump, who is pro-life, squeezed Planned Parenthood out of the Title X family planning program in August by insisting abortion not be part of that planning.
Planned Parenthood received $543.7 million in federal grants and reimbursements in 2017 and another $564.8 million in 2018, according to the organization’s own 2017-2018 annual report.
In a statement to the Times, Planned Parenthood’s vice president for communications called Wen’s grievances “unfortunate, saddening and simply untrue.” Melanie Newman continued, “The attorneys representing the board have made every good faith effort to amicably part from Dr. Wen, and are disappointed that they have been unable to reach a suitable resolution regarding her exit package.”
