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Planned Parenthood Sued For Alleged Racism By Black Former Official

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Trevor Schakohl Legal Reporter
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Planned Parenthood subjected a black employee to racism that culminated in her firing, a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.

Nicole Moore of New York became Planned Parenthood’s Multicultural Brand Engagement Director in January 2020 but encountered a supervisor with multiple racism accusations and reported that opportunities within the organization were racially unequal, according to the lawsuit. Leaders allegedly sabotaged Moore’s projects, disciplined her in unjustified ways, and ultimately fired her after she told HR that the punishments seemed to be a response to her claims of racial inequality at Planned Parenthood.

Moore was mistreated so badly prior to her firing that she had a severe panic attack, which hospitalized her for a day, the lawsuit alleges.

“Throughout her tenure, Moore faced well-documented and chronically unremedied patterns of racism: she was overlooked, overworked, over-scrutinized, tokenized, interrupted, dismissed, belittled, and abused by an openly hostile supervisor about whom many had complained about as racist,” the lawsuit reads in part. “Nevertheless, she strongly believed in Planned Parenthood’s mission and sought to advance its work in the face of these obstacles.” (RELATED: Planned Parenthood Director Claims During Hearing That Men Can Get Pregnant)

The lawsuit accuses Planned Parenthood of illegally discriminating against Moore and retaliating in violation of the New York City Human Rights Law. It claims the organization “blatantly ignored reports by dozens of its Black employees of systemic unequal hiring and promotion, more work for lower pay, overt hostility, and trafficking in stereotypes by leadership.”

“When I made the difficult decision to file a lawsuit, I was worried about backlash and that anti-abortion zealots might try to capitalize on my story to push their own harmful agenda,” Moore said in a statement sent to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The fact is that I cared deeply about abortion access before I worked at Planned Parenthood and I’m still fighting to advance reproductive justice, especially in Black and brown communities. Particularly since the fall of Roe, we cannot seriously expect to win the battle for our rights to control our sexuality, our gender, our work, and our reproduction if Planned Parenthood continues to lean into white supremacy and anti-Blackness in the workplace.”

Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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