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Leana Wen, the former president of recently dismissed Planned Parenthood, seems to be heading for an increasingly controversial exit, after accusing the leaders of the organization who tried to buy silence in a conflict that threatens to prolong and amplify an acrimonious transition one of the country's best-known groups in the field of health care and reproductive rights.
Dr. Wen has engaged two months of heated negotiations over his severance pay since being fired in July. She led Planned Parenthood for less than a year and accused the organization of having withheld her health insurance and severance pay as a "ransom" for pressuring her to get her to work. she signs a confidentiality agreement.
She made the charges in a barbed wire Letter of 1,400 words on the board of Planned Parenthood last week, obtained by the New York Times. "No amount of money can ever buy my integrity and commitment to the patients I serve," Dr. Wen wrote.
Public broadcasting Internal discord arises at an untimely time for Planned Parenthood, as both the organization itself and its abortion services have been attacked by the Trump administration and by Republican-controlled states.
Planned Parenthood challenged Dr. Wen's characterizations.
"Dr. Wen's recent allegations are sad, sad and simply wrong, "said Melanie Newman, senior vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood. "The lawyers representing the board of directors have made every effort in good faith to part with Dr. Wen amicably and are disappointed that they have not reached an appropriate resolution regarding their original package."
Ms. Newman pointed out that Dr. Wen remained on the payroll during the negotiations and that he will be salaried until mid-October, with health benefits until the end of the year. months under COBRA. Ms. Newman stated that Planned Parenthood had offered Dr. Wen an additional full year of salary and health benefits "on standard terms and in accordance with her employment agreement and any reasonable exit program". frames".
The conflict, in many ways, is classic and familiar: a dismissed leader seeking compensation and the organization seeking a non-disparagement agreement.
In a statement Saturday, Dr. Wen stated that "there should be no dispute about the terms of my employment contract, which are clearly defined," and that she was disappointed that her letter had sank. People familiar with the subject said that a deadline had been set for Monday so that Dr. Wen and Planned Parenthood could reach an agreement.
The internal drama comes as Planned Parenthood is increasingly subject to foreign policy. constraint. Last month, Planned Parenthood declared that it was withdraw from the federal program that provides services to poor women rather than abide by a new rule of the Trump administration that prohibits referring patients to doctors who can provide abortions. The program, called Title X, provided $ 60 million per year to the group.
The Planned Parenthood Board of Directors has dismissed Dr. Wen, 36, in July what officials have described as his abrasive and flawed management style. Dr. Wen blamed his dismissal for causing disagreements for further redirecting the organization's organization in favor of abortion policy and more. vis-à-vis its role as a provider of health care for women.
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In her letter, Dr. Wen wrote that she thought minimizing the importance of "abortion care is the best way to protect them." prefer a decidedly political philosophy, abortion first and foremost ".
Ds. Wen Wen said she "had no desire to harm the organization," although some of her July comments on abortion policy were promptly seized by officials. conservatives looking for a political advantage.
Much of his letter of September 9 dealt with more personal matters. Dr. Wen accused the two council presidents of having prevented her from addressing the entire council and wrote that she had refused to sign "a permanent gag on my voice". When she was fired on July 16, "despite substantial financial pressures and incentives."
Before his dismissal in July, Dr. Wen and the board had been involved in weeks of intense negotiations, according to people close to the case. at about the same time, Dr. Wen also suffered a miscarriage. She wrote about this experience in the Washington Post without informing the leaders of Planned Parenthood.
In her recent letter, she left open the possibility of a lawsuit. "I have no desire to file claims against Planned Parenthood for defamation, retaliation or discrimination," she wrote worryingly.
She stated that Planned Parenthood demanded its silence "in exchange for my contracted severance pay and my continued health insurance coverage," calling the efforts "unfair" and "unethical" ".
Dr. Wen went so far as to invoke the recent rules of the Trump administration to accuse the Planned Parenthood Board of Directors of hypocrisy.
"It's profoundly hypocritical," she wrote, that Planned Parenthood "would try to impose a gag order on its former president / CEO while fighting the Trump Administration's gag rule on suppliers of title X ".
Ms. Newman stated that Planned Parenthood had in fact "proposed wording to respond reasonably to its concerns about the scope of the confidentiality clause".
"We expected to reach a resolution and finalize the package in the coming days," said Newman, citing her potential as a distraction at a crucial time. "Our work is more necessary than ever and we have never been more attached to it today."
Thursday, Dr. Wen posted on Twitter that she was a new visiting professor at George Washington University and that she was pregnant.
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