The president of Planned Parenthood was terminated after just eight months.
The Washington Examiner reports that Dr. Leana Wen was forced out by the organization’s leaders at a “secret meeting.” Wen announced her departure Tuesday, citing “philosophical differences” with the direction of the country’s largest abortion provider.
“I am leaving because the new Board Chairs and I have philosophical differences over the direction and future of Planned Parenthood,” Wen said in a statement. “I will always stand with Planned Parenthood, as I continue my life’s work and mission of caring for and fighting for women, families, and communities.”
Planned Parenthood president forced out
In a statement, Wen said that she was ousted out amid “good faith” negotiations about Planned Parenthood’s future at a “secret meeting,” The Hill reports, and that she didn’t learn of her firing until after she was terminated. In a follow-up tweet, Wen — the first doctor to head the organization in decades — suggested that her view that abortion is a health care issue, rather than a political one, may have played a role.
“I believe that the best way to protect abortion care is to be clear that it is not a political issue but a health care one, and that we can expand support for reproductive rights by finding common ground with the large majority of Americans who understand reproductive health care as the fundamental health care that it is,” Wen said Tuesday.
Of course, abortion is not a “health care issue” — it is always political, and efforts to label it otherwise are motivated by a desire to sanitize what abortion actually is. But Wen’s views reportedly led her to clash with staff because she was not considered politically engaged enough.
Abortion outrage sweeps the nation
Wen’s brief time at Planned Parenthood coincided with a rise in tensions across the country over abortion. Numerous states have passed restrictive abortion laws, while the Democrats have pushed far to the left on abortion rights with support for late-term abortion. Abortion supporters have raised the alarm over efforts by President Donald Trump to roll back abortion rights and possibly repeal Roe v. Wade, especially after Trump confirmed two conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
On Monday, President Trump ordered that taxpayer-funded abortion clinics must stop making abortion referrals, or else risk losing Title X federal grant money. The order could cost Planned Parenthood up to $60 million.
With abortion rights in the crosshairs of states and the federal government, some at Planned Parenthood apparently felt that Wen couldn’t rise to the occasion. Sources told Buzzfeed News that Wen’s ouster followed months of complaints about her leadership style, which staffers found ineffective and an unwelcome change from the brazen political approach of her predecessor, Cecil Richards, who led the organization for 12 years.
A source told Buzzfeed that Wen “demonstrated a complete lack of leadership capability at a time when this organization requires an extraordinary leader.” She was reportedly given an opportunity to resign, but refused.
Not “woke” enough?
In a letter to Planned Parenthood posted to Twitter, Wen said she was leaving “sooner than I’d hoped” but acknowledged that Planned Parenthood may have sought a more politically engaged approach given the “landscape” of abortion rights under the Trump administration.
“The new Board leadership has determined that the priority of Planned Parenthood moving forward is to double down on abortion rights advocacy,” she said, according to Fox News. “With the landscape changing dramatically in the last several months and the right to safe, legal abortion care under attack like never before, I understand the shift in the Board’s prioritization.”
Despite these internal tensions, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF), the political arm of Planned Parenthood — a redundant label, it would seem — thanked Wen for her service.
“We thank Dr. Leana Wen for her service to Planned Parenthood in such a pivotal time and extend our best wishes for her continued success,” said PPAF board chairwomen Aimee Cunningham and Jennie Rosenthal.
But Wen’s “philosophical differences” may have gone further than how to advocate for abortion. Buzzfeed reported that Wen refused to use “trans-inclusive” language, for example by referring to “women” seeking abortions rather than “people,” and she feared highlighting transgender issues would “isolate people in the Midwest.”
The Buzzfeed report prompted conservative commentators at the National Review and elsewhere to comment that Wen wasn’t “woke enough” for Planned Parenthood.
Wen came into the role in November 2018 after having served as Baltimore’s health commissioner. Alexis McGill Johnson, a Planned Parenthood board member, will serve as acting president of Planned Parenthood until a new leader is selected. The search for a new president and CEO will begin in 2020.
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