Almost a year after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe sues WadePlanned Parenthood officials say they are preparing to restructure the organization’s national office and lay off dozens of employees, with a new focus on helping local affiliates.
Abortion rights advocates rally outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis on May 31, 2019. At the time, it was the last site in Missouri to perform abortions. The state’s abortion ban went into effect shortly after the Dobbs decision in 2022.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
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SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Abortion rights advocates rally outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis on May 31, 2019. At the time, it was the last site in Missouri to perform abortions. The state’s abortion ban went into effect shortly after the Dobbs decision in 2022.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Union officials representing Planned Parenthood employees said they were told the layoffs would affect 10 to 20 percent of the national workforce, or at least 80 people.
In a joint statement from unions representing employees in New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC, union officials expressed disappointment at the news, saying that Planned Parenthood leaders are “fire some of our movement’s brightest minds. This comes at a time when free reproduction is in jeopardy and when our members are struggling in difficult economic conditions.” towel.”
Planned Parenthood, which offers a wide range of reproductive health services including abortion through clinics across the country, is the nation’s most renowned provider of abortion services. More than a dozen states have implemented abortion bans in response Dobbs Women’s Health Organization v. Jackson decided in June 2022, forcing the organization’s affiliates to adjust and adapt to a new legal context.
In a statement, the American Federation of Planned Parenthood and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund said the organization would “restructure” its national office and invest $70 million in its affiliates.
President and CEO of Planned Parenthood, Alexis McGill Johnson, said the organization will expand its capabilities for telehealth and other technologies to serve patients regardless of location. It will also invest in state and national electoral struggles, and launch an initiative designed to reduce reproductive health disparities for Black women.
“Undoubtedly, the world we live in right now – Supreme Court decision overturned Roe sues Wade and the loss of access to abortion, weaponization of the courts and attacks on our democracy, the criminalization of service providers and patients, and widespread misinformation — has vastly different from just a decade ago,” she said in the statement. also.”
