Planned Parenthood Director Resigns After Employees Call Out Her Racist Views

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Dec 2, 2020   |   4:24PM   |   Harrisburg, PA

More new accusations of racism from Planned Parenthood’s employees surfaced last week in Pennsylvania as the abortion chain grapples with its eugenic roots. And they have caused an abortion business director to resign.

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion chain in the U.S., and pro-lifers have accused it of racially targeting mothers and unborn babies for decades, starting with its eugenicist founder Margaret Sanger.

Over the past several months, hundreds of Planned Parenthood employees have been accusing the abortion chain of racism – though many fail to recognize that the discrimination hurts unborn babies as well as born patients and staff.

The latest complaints came from the staff of Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania Advocates (PPPA), the political advocacy branch of the abortion group in Pennsylvania.

According to the Pittsburgh Current, staff published an open letter Nov. 24 demanding the resignation of executive director Emily Callen and several board members.

“Callen exhibited very problematic behavior, but she is a symptom of a larger, more deep-seated problem,” former Planned Parenthood staffer Jessica Semler said.

In the letter, the staff accused Callen and an unspecified number of board members of being “fiscally irresponsible,” “openly racist, transphobic or otherwise abusive toward staff and other board members.”

Noting budget issues and a “financial deficit,” the employees said they are not happy with how Planned Parenthood’s leaders are handling the problems. Among other things, they said PPPA fired a black woman “who excelled at her job.”

They said Planned Parenthood leaders “take advantage” of the divisive abortion debate and count on staff staying quiet about problems.

The staff said their decision to go public “was made out of love for the organization, the people it serves, and the values it espouses,” especially its commitment to abortion.

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Organizing under the name “Save PPPA,” the staff asked for a seat on the board as well as a board commitment to “diversity, equity and inclusion and unlearning racism/racial biases.” They said they also want to be involved in hiring decisions.

Callen has now resigned after the sweeping accusations from more than 900 employees.

Surprisingly, some staffers also accused Planned Parenthood of not focusing enough on abortions – even though its abortion numbers keep going up and it aborts more than 345,000 unborn babies each year.

“We cannot afford to have leaders who aren’t committed to abortion access,” said Christine O’Donovan-Zavada, who works for PPPA. “It’s a disservice to the people we claim to support and to the movement. Abortion access needs to be front and center, and so do the voices of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Color), TGNC (Transgender & Gender Nonconforming) folks, low-income folks, etc.”

Planned Parenthood staff in other parts of the country have been complaining, too.

In June, more than 300 current and former staffers accused the CEO of its New York branch of “systemic racism,” “abusive behavior and financial malfeasance.” She later resigned.

And a 2018 New York Times investigation revealed evidence of the abortion chain mistreating and discriminating against its pregnant employees.

Tennessee Planned Parenthood employees also raised concerns in 2018 about the abortion chain putting money ahead of patients’ well-being. According to the Nashville Scene, their concerns included a potential health hazard: “new management stopped providing doctors with sterile gloves and, staffers say, wanted to use small plastic drinking cups for urine samples.”

In the past few years, Planned Parenthood also has fought against employees’ attempts to unionize as they called for better wages and working conditions.

Then, in July, another former employee Jessa Crispin published a widely-read Guardian column accusing the abortion chain of being more concerned about money and prestige than women in need.

“Like many major non-profits, Planned Parenthood seems more concerned with hobnobbing with the powerful, paying the CEOs of its regional chapters salaries in the mid-six figures, making symbolic gestures and coming up with a catchy slogan to sell on T-shirts than with providing care for the people who need their services,” Cripsin wrote.

Other pro-abortion groups, including the National Organization for Women and NARAL, also have been accused of racism in recent months.

Pro-life advocates have been calling out discrimination by pro-abortion groups for years, but now their own employees are saying it, too. Money and power are at the center of pro-abortion leaders’ priorities, and valuing people is not.