WASHINGTON — Following the news Dr. Leana Wen was fired by
Planned Parenthood as its president, several pro-life leaders remarked that the
organization was upset the physician had emphasized the need to expand Planned
Parenthood services beyond abortion.
"Leana Wen entered Planned Parenthood to great fanfare. As a
physician, it was anticipated that she would evolve the organization, long seen
as a partisan platform, into a health care institution," said Catherine
Glenn Foster, president and CEO of Americans United for Life.
"And when Dr. Wen tried to do precisely that, she was fired.
She refused to allow abortion to dominate Planned Parenthood's agenda, all the
way from the very top down to every talking point," she added in a July 18
statement. "Dr. Wen's termination is emphatic proof that Planned
Parenthood has been, is and will be nothing more than a political
machine."
Various news reports said Wen wanted to provide additional
services such as mental health and substance abuse resources, but, according to
Americans United for Life, "anonymous Planned Parenthood employees
referred to these treatments as 'mission creep.'"
In a July 19 op-ed in The New York Times,
Wen wrote: "In my farewell message to colleagues, I cited philosophical
differences over the best way to protect reproductive health. While the
traditional approach has been through prioritizing advocating for abortion
rights, I have long believed that the most effective way to advance
reproductive health is to be clear that it is not a political issue but a health
care one."
She added, "I believed we could expand support for Planned
Parenthood — and ultimately for abortion access — by finding common ground with
the large majority of Americans who can unite behind the goal of improving the
health and well-being of women and children."
Planned Parenthood announced Alexis McGill Johnson, co-founder of
the anti-bias research group Perception Institute and Planned Parenthood board
member, will temporarily replace Wen until a new president is hired.
American Life League's president, Judie Brown, said Wen "was
trumpeted as the first doctor to lead Planned Parenthood since Dr. Alan
Guttmacher in the 1970s."
"Wen came into Planned Parenthood looking to move Planned
Parenthood out of the political arena and into actual health care. She lasted
only eight months," Brown said.
Wen "discovered" that Planned Parenthood, she said,
"is not now, nor has it ever been, a health care organization. (It) is an
organization established to promote the humanist religion, to lead our young people
to hell, and to make a lot of money along the way so it can buy influence with
politicians and media."
Other reaction included a tweet from Abby Johnson, the former
Planned Parenthood clinic director who became a pro-life activist. She is the
author of "Unplanned," a book about her change of heart on the
abortion issue that has been made into a major motion picture.
"Our job is to reach out to Dr. Leana Wen in love,"
Johnson tweeted. "Snarky memes and words will not bring about conversion.
Let us also remember that she is a woman grieving the loss of a miscarried
child. Let us treat her with care, not callousness. Let's be the people we say
we are."
Wen, who was Baltimore's heath commissioner before being hired by
Planned Parenthood, has been public about having suffered a miscarriage in
early July.