Planned Parenthood’s Own Staff Complain About a Toxic Workplace

Planned Parenthood is a giant in the Abortion Industry, its affiliates responsible for close to 40% of all the abortions performed in the United States. That’s a lot of dead babies.

PPFA is also a titan in the position its hold in politics. On November 6, 2024, its Planned Parenthood Action Fund stated that “its advocacy and political organizations made a record-breaking $69.5 million investment in the 2024 election cycle,” according to Grok.

With all the money and its dominant role in Democrat politics (virtually every penny goes to Democrats), perhaps that’s why it appears not to be paying a lot of attention to the growing list of employes complaining about toxic workplaces in its 49 state/regional affiliates.

The latest example comes from Minnesota Public Radio. “Staff complaints, financial pressures roil Planned Parenthood in Minnesota” is the headline to Erica Zurek’s story about Planned Parenthood North Central States. 

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It’s worth reading it in entirety. The major points are

External pressure is only part of the story. Conversations with eight current and former employees reveal that the organization is also experiencing internal strain, with at least seven internal complaints about management over the past two years. 

Multiple staff members expressed discontent with executive leaders and top managers. They characterized the work environment as disrespectful and chaotic. And they described what they saw as efforts to silence internal dissent that they said are contributing to the difficulties at Planned Parenthood North Central States. 

Planned Parenthood North Central State is by no means the only regional affiliate with staff in near rebellion.

Their concerns echoed those raised at the organization’s Omaha clinic earlier this year, as detailed in an article published by the Flatwater Free Press, an investigative news outlet covering Nebraska. The article, based on interviews with seven current and former staff, reported complaints about short staffing, “chaotic management” and “unresponsive out-of-state executives,” allegations that Planned Parenthood North Central States denied. 

Planned Parenthood North Central States’s internal strife

came amid a time of financial stress. In May, the organization announced it was closing 8 of its 23 health centers and laying off 66 employees. The clinic closures and consolidations affect an estimated 90,000 patients. …

Of the 15 clinics currently operating in the region served by the organization, only three provide abortion procedures on-site. 

The financial woes have history.

The financial troubles had been brewing for years. In 2018, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota announced it was combining operations with Planned Parenthood of the Heartland to form Planned Parenthood North Central States, which now serves as the parent organization for the two subsidiaries. Staff members said that the integration of the two organizations came with its own set of financial hardships. Publicly available tax returns indicate that both organizations were operating at a loss before joining forces. 

The combined entity operated in the black for its first five years, but in fiscal year 2024, the organization’s tax forms show revenues dropped and expenses rose, resulting in a deficit of nearly $3 million. Internal budget documents shared with MPR News show the organization projected a $10 million deficit in fiscal year 2025, which culminated in the clinics closing. 

One employee, who quit in June, complained

“There has been no accountability, no effort to stop the damage. Just willful, complicit silence,” she wrote in a mass email to her colleagues on her last day of work. “I could give specific examples, but HR has allowed this to continue so it must be okay to come to work and be threatened, harassed, belittled, and degraded.”

Disgruntled employees, former and current, say they send emails to Planned Parenthood, outlining what was happening:

“We have a fractured Executive Team,” they wrote in a May 28 email to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the national parent organization that supports independently incorporated Planned Parenthood affiliates. The email alleged that staff were “being ‘restructured’ out because they push back on the COO,” referring to Davis-Wyatt. “We have no one to turn to.” 

The tenor of Zurek’s story was captured succinctly in this:

A former employee who left Planned Parenthood North Central States in the summer of 2024 after nearly a decade of working at clinics in the Twin Cities said that the organization consistently operates on the brink of crisis. They believe that this environment allows inappropriate behavior among management to be overlooked. 

“I cannot tell you the number of times I heard, ‘In the future, this will be different,’” they said. 

This is music to our ears, but we must never forgot that national Planned Parenthood is always adjusting. Despite all this dissension and all these closures and firings, they are still raking in the bucks and performing record numbers of abortions.

Perhaps they can be so cavalier about plunging employee morale and the closure of many clinics because they are being replaced by virtual medicine and abortion pills sent directly to women through the mail.

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.