Union officials representing Planned Parenthood employees are expecting the organization to lay off 10 to 20 percent of its national workforce, which is at least 80 people, NPR reported Tuesday.
Planned Parenthood officials said the layoffs are part of an effort to restructure the organization’s national office and to shift focus on assisting local affiliates, according to the report. The move comes nearly a year after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and returned the issue of abortion to individual states.
People rally in support of abortion rights at the state Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., May 21, 2019. Planned Parenthood leaders from 24 states gathered in Sacramento, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022, hoping to map out a nationwide strategy that would emulate their success on the West Coast. . (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
“In a joint statement from unions representing employees in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., union officials expressed dismay at the news, saying that Planned Parenthood leaders are ‘pushing out some of our movement’s brightest minds. This comes at a time where reproductive freedom is in jeopardy and when our members are struggling under difficult economic conditions,'” according to the report.
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The organization’s affiliates have had to grapple with a shifting legal landscape after more than a dozen states passed pro-life laws protecting unborn babies following the Dobbs decision in June 2022. Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund said in a statement that the organization will “reimagine” its national office and will invest $70 million in its affiliates, the report states.
Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said the abortion giant will also work to expand its telehealth services and other technologies “aimed at serving patients regardless of location,” according to the report. The organization additionally plans to invest even more in national elections and race-related initiatives.
“Without question, the world we are living in right now — the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the loss of abortion access, the weaponization of our courts and attacks on our democracy, the criminalization of providers and patients, and rampant misinformation — is vastly different than just a decade ago,” McGill claimed in a statement. “Planned Parenthood must change too.”
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