
Dr. Leana Wen
NEW YORK (AP) — Planned Parenthood’s president has been forced out of her job after only eight months as the organization faces unprecedented challenges related to its role as the leading abortion provider in the United States.
Dr. Leana Wen said in a statement posted on Twitter on July 16 that she had “philosophical differences” with the new chairs of Planned Parenthood’s board regarding abortion politics.
Wen, an immigrant who fled her native China when she was 8, said that abortion is “not a political issue but a health care one.”
She said the board ended her employment at a secret meeting.
Her departure comes as the Trump administration announced it would start enforcing new rules that ban taxpayer-funded family planning clinics referring women for abortions.
Planned Parenthood, the largest recipient of those funds, says it will not abide by those rules.
The organization thanked Wen for her service in a tweet.