Planned Parenthood Has a Good-Girl Problem

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.thecut.com/article/planned-parenthood-federally-defunded-facing-a-crisis.html

In the first few months of Trump’s second term, Planned Parenthood took some significant blows. Some affiliates were locked out of government funding for family planning and preventative health care for allegedly violating the president’s executive order prohibiting the use of federal money to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. Others, including PPGNY, were told they couldn’t use federal grants for teen-pregnancy-prevention programs unless they promised to comply with Trump’s executive orders on DEI and “gender ideology.”

Then, this past July, through Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the right achieved its long-pursued dream of cutting Planned Parenthood off from the majority of its federal funds, effectively stripping the organization of Medicaid money — an estimated $700 million — for a year. This time, conservatives not only controlled all three levers of government; they also had fewer moderates, such as Senator John McCain, whose thumbs-down vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act had circumvented Planned Parenthood’s defunding during the first Trump administration. And though Planned Parenthood warned that the bill put as many as 200 clinics at risk of closing, the public response from its allies was far quieter than it had been in the past: They were exhausted, overwhelmed, and a bit disillusioned. The millions of dollars Planned Parenthood had spent lobbying over the past few decades had failed to protect abortion nationally, and Roe had been lost.

At the same time, the organization was seen by many in the abortion-rights movement as less relevant than it had been in the past. They believed it was overly cautious — it had resisted sending medication abortion to ban states as other groups had ramped up provision — and a trail of seemingly self-interested choices had infuriated allies to its left, leaving it with fewer defenders in its time of need. For years, since long before the second Trump administration, grassroots operations and leaders in abortion rights had accused Planned Parenthood of compromising the movement, its own core mission, and public trust — all for the sake of maintaining political power. It had continued to support politicians that failed to prioritize abortion rights, preemptively complied with hostile laws, and declined to fight them when they passed — even, in some cases, refusing to provide abortions in inhospitable areas when it was still legal to do so.

(snip)

Though Planned Parenthood affiliates operate with a degree of independence, several critics blame the national organization’s leadership for setting the tone. Michele Goodwin, a Georgetown law professor and a former board member for a Southern Californian affiliate, says she wants Planned Parenthood to succeed — few other groups have the capacity to provide what it does to underserved communities — but, she tells me, “Planned Parenthood has a good-girl problem.” The national board especially: “It’s not wanting to seem to be enraged, bitter, upset, wanting to get along, not upset the cart. They fear speaking more loudly. Let’s just be of soft voice and maybe the members of Congress won’t be mean toward Planned Parenthood. Of course that never worked.”