Ex-city official settles dispute
Planned Parenthood, Wen reach pact over severance, benefits
Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore’s former health commissioner, has resolved a dispute with Planned Parenthood over her severance and benefits, which she said the organization was withholding to get her to sign a burdensome confidentiality contract after she was fired less than a year into her tenure as president and CEO.
Both Wen and Planned Parenthood issued statements Tuesday welcoming the agreement — but neither addressed the confidentiality contract issue.
“I am relieved that the dispute with @PPFA [Planned Parenthood] has been resolved & I will not comment any further on this private employment matter,” Wen tweeted. “As a former patient, I will always be thankful for the exceptional care that Planned Parenthood provides to millions of people every year.”
Planned Parenthood is “glad that both parties have been able to work together and find a resolution,” the women’s reproductive health organization said in a statement.
“Every day, the people at Planned Parenthood wake up with one thing on their mind: the patients who access care through the 600 Planned Parenthood health centers, in 53 affiliates, representing all 50 states,” Planned Parenthood’s statement said. “That’s been the core of Planned Parenthood’s mission for over 100 years and we are focused on continuing to fulfill that mission for the millions of patients who depend on us.”
The separation dispute following Wen’s firing in July became public in an article the New York Times published Saturday detailing the dispute and quoting from a letter Wen wrote to the board of the women’s reproductive health organization.
Wen has said her firing came down to a difference of priorities: “I wanted to emphasize total women’s health. They wanted to double down on abortion rights.”
She has said the confidentiality agreement the organization asked her to sign went beyond what she agreed to when she took the job, and was an attempt to “silence my voice as a public health expert.”
Planned Parenthood has said that the terms of her firing were “standard and consistent with her employment agreement and any reasonable executive exit package.” While Wen did not say directly whether she had signed a confidentiality agreement, she pushed back when someone accused her of selling out: “So you took the money. And are keeping silent. As expected.”
“No amount of money will ever buy my integrity and commitment to the patients I serve,” Wen tweeted.
Wen, who served as Baltimore’s top health official for four years before leaving for Planned Parenthood, has taken a teaching job with George Washington University.