Planned Parenthood exec passed over, sues for bias

Despite its pro-choice public mission, Planned Parenthood’s New York arm is a racial tempest where even the highest-ranking African-American man in the history of the organization could not avoid discrimination, according to a new lawsuit.

Samuel Mitchell, the chief operating officer and first Black man on Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s executive leadership team, was held to a different standard than other employees in an organization that was “stained with racist overtones,” he claims in the complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court.

The organization was so uncommitted to rooting out racism, that when a Black CEO above Mitchell (photo) was let go by the organization, Mitchell was passed over in favor of yet another white woman, the lawsuit said.

“I’m here to be a voice for the Black and Brown people, specifically, men of color that this organization continues to discriminate against,” Mitchell said Tuesday. “The organization continues to uphold its white systemic racism from the board level to the floor and it must stop.”

Mitchell’s lawyers said Planned Parenthood has continued to thrive despite troubling questions about its founder, Margaret Sanger, whose “racist alliances and belief in eugenics have caused irreparable damage to the health and lives of Black people, indigenous people, people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, and many others,” according to the organization’s own website.

Mitchell and his lawyers said they wonder Sanger continues to be promoted by the organization.

“Planned Parenthood was started by Margaret Sanger who was an unabashed racist, someone who believed in eugenics and someone who was a sympathizer for the Ku Klux Klan,” said Mitchell’s lawyer, Derek Sells.

“She was the one that founded Planned Parenthood and she is still featured by that organization as one of its leaders in this day and age where we have cancel culture, where people like Harvey Weinstein can be canceled, where Confederate generals who were immortalized with statues are taken down.”

The organization publicly disavowed Sanger in 2020, removing her name from its Manhattan health clinic. Sanger stirred controversy for supporting eugenics, a discredited belief that the human race could be improved through selective breeding.

As for Mitchell’s racism charges, Parenthood spokeswoman Jacquelyn Marrero, said they were not true.

“Planned Parenthood of Greater New York categorically denies the spurious allegations made by a recent addition to our executive team,” Marrero said in a statement.

“PPGNY vehemently renounces any form of discrimination or retaliation. Our top priority for our team members is a safe, diverse and equitable workplace that supports our mission to provide access to reproductive health for all.”

In 2020, the company fired CEO Laura McQuade, a white woman, after numerous complaints of her alleged discriminatory and abusive treatment of PPGNY’s African-American employees, according to the lawsuit.

The Black woman who replaced McQuade on an interim basis, Joy Callaway, brought in Mitchell, part of her effort to change the organization’s culture. But she was soon replaced, and Mitchell was passed over.

“Mr. Mitchell has suffered humiliating comments. He has been denigrated,” Sells said. “He has been ostracized and minimized by the white dominant culture at Planned Parenthood. This lawsuit is meant to correct that, and make this organization true to what it should be, which is equality for all.”

The accusations come within months of a lawsuit filed by Nicole Moore, the former director of multicultural brand engagement for the organization, who said its racist and toxic culture sent her to the emergency room.

She sued Planned Parenthood’s national organization in October, alleging racial discrimination and wrongful termination.