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WSR: 2022-07-13

  • Planned Parenthood Staffer: We Can’t Safely Maintain Clinics
  • Fearing Litigation, PP Montana Will Not Give Abortion Pills to Women from Trigger Law States
  • All Texas Planned Parenthood Affiliates Have Ceased Abortion

By Rita Diller

There have been more rumblings from within the panicked Planned Parenthood organization, as workers began union organizing across the Midwest in late May of this year. They said they were anticipating the overturn of Roe v. Wade and an increased workload.

According to a Guardian article, PP workers across five states—Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota—turned to the National Labor Relations Board when Planned Parenthood management denied their request to unionize.

The Guardian quoted April Clark, an Iowa registered nurse, who said: “We really can’t even safely maintain clinics now with our staffing, much less once the need gets higher.” She also cited high turnover rates of PP employees.

“They’re constantly pushing to have less staff in the clinic and at the same time do more,” she said of her employer, Planned Parenthood.

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, Planned Parenthood workers were successful in their bid to unionize after positive results in a July 2022 election. Management at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts opposed the bid to unionize, according to an Observer article, “paint[ing] the union as a threat to the [Planned Parenthood] mission.”  Planned Parenthood Federation of America reported a $69.7 million profit (excess of total revenue over total expenses) in its latest annual report. It has yet to release its long overdue 2020-2021 income and expense numbers.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Jennifer Sandman, senior director of public policy litigation, cited“extraordinary chaos and fear” in the wake of the Dobbs decision as a reason that PP Montana will not distribute abortion pills to women from states where trigger bans have gone into effect. “Trigger bans” are laws designed to trigger abortion restrictions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Planned Parenthood has relied on the abortion pill regimen to expand its abortion business and keep income up in the face of falling facility numbers. 

Unsurprisingly, it had hoped to use the abortion pills to abort the babies of women from states that have enacted highly restrictive abortion laws following the overturn of Roe v. Wade

Jeffrey Hons, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Texas, announced the cessation of abortion at all Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates on June 24, 2022, saying: “We must pause abortion services at our separate organizations while our legal teams continue to review today’s devastating ruling and how it impacts and triggers existing Texas laws, including total abortion bans,” referring to the Supreme Court decision returning abortion restriction capability to the states.

He said abortions at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, and Planned Parenthood South Texas have all ceased.

The three Planned Parenthood affiliates operate all the PP facilities across Texas. 

A Google search of Texas Planned Parenthood abortion centers showed that not one is currently offering abortions and that PP’s Audre Rapoport Abortion Services Center in Waco is “temporarily closed until further notice as of 6/24/2022.”