Planned Parenthood fires president as Trump administration rolls back on abortion access

Largest provider of reproductive health care wants political street fighter to challenge new restrictions across country

The US’s largest provider of reproductive health care has fired its president after less than a year in the job, as the Trump administration rolls back access to abortion.

Against the backdrop of various states passing new regulations on access to abortion and the introduction of similarly restrictive rules by the federal government, Planned Parenthood said it was replacing Leana Wen, just 10 months after she took the high profile job.

Reports said the board of the group, which says it helps provide sexual and reproductive health care to around 5m women, men and adolescents every year, believed it needed to appoint a skilled political fighter to help protect women’s access to safe and legal abortion, as conservatives seek to overturn Roe v Wade the 1973 ruling by the US Supreme Court held that a pregnant woman has a constitutional right to choose to terminate her pregnancy before viability as part of her freedom of personal choice in family matters

Ms Wen, the first physician to lead the group which celebrated its 100th birthday in 2017, said she was leaving because of “philosophical differences over the direction and future of Planned Parenthood”.

“I believe the best way to protect abortion care is to be clear that it is not a political issue but a health care one, and that we can expand support for reproductive health care as the fundamental health care that it is,” she wrote on Twitter.

The board of directors of both the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, announced that Alexis McGill Johnson was named acting president and chief executive effective immediately.

“Alexis is a renowned social justice leader, lifelong political organiser, and a tireless advocate for reproductive rights and access to quality, affordable health care,” said a statement by PPFA board Chair Aimee Cunningham and PPAF Board Chair Jennie Rosenthal.

“We thank Dr Leana Wen for her service to Planned Parenthood in such a pivotal time and extend our best wishes for her continued success.”

Reports pointed out the firing of Ms Wen, 36, come as a number of states such as Georgia, Arkansas and Ohio, have passed restrictions on access to abortion, in an attempt to trigger a legal challenge to the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that guarantees a women’s right to choose.

Energised by Donald Trump’s appointment last year of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, anti-abortion activists are hoping to criminalise a procedure a steady majority of Americans believe should be available legally.

In May, Alabama’s governor signed into law the most restrictive abortion legislation in the country. It prevents abortions in every circumstance, other than if a women’s health is at serious risk.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced all taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, saying it was to begin enforcing a new regulation hailed by religious conservatives and denounced by medical organisations and women’s rights groups.

The head of a national umbrella group representing the clinics said the administration is following “an ideological agenda” that could disrupt basic health care for many low-income women.

Ahead of a planned conference with the clinics, the health and human services department formally notified them that it will begin enforcing the ban on abortion referrals, along with a requirement that clinics maintain separate finances from facilities that provide abortions. Another requirement that both kinds of facilities cannot be under the same roof would take effect next year.

The rule is widely seen as a blow against Planned Parenthood, which provides taxpayer-funded family planning and basic health care to low-income women, as well as abortions that must be paid for separately.

Additional reporting by Associated Press