The firing of Planned Parenthood president Dr. Leana Wen less than a year after she came aboard shocked people on all sides of the abortion debate. Citing “philosophical differences,” Wen described her abrupt termination as a consequence of the divide between Planned Parenthood’s approach to abortion as a political cause versus as a “medical service.” The disagreement reveals Planned Parenthood’s true priority – politics over patients.
Wen is rabidly anti-Life, equally or perhaps even more so than previous Planned Parenthood CEOs. Throughout her time at Planned Parenthood, Wen emphasized abortion as the group’s “core mission,” diverging from her predecessor who tried to downplay abortion as only three percent of the group’s activity.
The “philosophical differences” that prompted Wen’s termination appear to be that Wen, a physician, saw the organization primarily as a health care and abortion provider with political activity as a lesser concern. The board, she implied, seems to view Planned Parenthood first and foremost as a political force – their patients only an accessory to this broader motivation.
Reports indicate that Wen was fastidious about referring to “abortion care” alongside a range of legitimate health care procedures. Yet, legitimate health services plummeted in recent years while elective abortions at Planned Parenthood climbed to a staggering 332,757, as noted in the abortion business’s most recent annual report. Wen, a former emergency room doctor and Baltimore health commissioner, seemed to think that she could make Planned Parenthood a health care resource for low-income families, like the thousands of federally qualified health centers that do not commit elective abortions, while still running one of America’s largest political powerhouses.
The firing of Dr. Wen is the latest example of the puppet masters at Planned Parenthood opting for radical abortion politics over health care.
Given Planned Parenthood’s fixation on the political, one might rightly ask: Why does Planned Parenthood receive more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding? This organization is a professed anti-Life lobbying group intent on dismantling any and all restrictions on the slaughter of the preborn and forcing taxpayers to directly pay for the killing.
This commitment to abortion is leading to a short-term financial loss for Planned Parenthood, as the Trump administration’s Pro-Life rule to exclude abortion organizations from receiving Title X funding takes effect. Faced with the loss of both millions of dollars and the opportunity to provide needed health care to low-income families, Planned Parenthood chose to continue the massive and growing abortion business instead of helping patients.
Now that Dr. Wen is gone, we should not expect Planned Parenthood’s advertising to become any more honest. This organization is built on lies: the lie that they provide health services, the lie that a preborn child is not a human being with the Right to Life and a beating heart, the lie that a mother can kill her child without suffering, and the lie that abortion is “care.” Planned Parenthood has shown time and again that they will not stop, so we must not stop. Expose the lies and fight for Life.