Almost a year after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. WadePlanned Parenthood officials say they are preparing to restructure the organization’s national office and lay off dozens of staff members, with a new focus on helping local affiliates.
Abortion rights supporters rally outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis on May 31, 2019. At the time, it was the last place 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 supporters rally outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis on May 31, 2019. At the time, it was the last place 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 expect layoffs to affect 10 to 20% 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 dismay at the news, saying Planned Parenthood leaders are “pushing some of the most brilliant minds of our movement. This comes at a time when reproductive freedom is in danger and when our members are struggling under difficult economic conditions”.
Planned Parenthood, which provides a variety of reproductive health services including abortion through its clinics across the country, is the nation’s best-known abortion provider. More than a dozen states have implemented abortion bans in response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022, which forced the affiliates of the organization to adjust and adapt to a new legal landscape.
In a statement, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund said the organization will “reimagine” its national office and invest $70 million in its affiliates.
Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said the organization will expand its telehealth capability and other technologies aimed at serving patients regardless of location. It will also invest in state and national election campaigns, and launch an initiative designed to reduce reproductive health disparities for Black women.
“Undoubtedly, the world we live in right now – the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the loss of access to abortion, the weaponization of our courts and the attacks on our democracy, the criminalization of providers and patients, and rampant misinformation – it’s very different from a decade ago just a long time ago,” she said in the statement. “Planned Parenthood needs to change. too.”
