New president of Planned Parenthood visits Phoenix
“I think about what’s at stake, and what’s at stake is women’s lives. The cost of politics is women’s lives.”
Abortion should not be singled out or stigmatized because it is part of standard medical care, the new leader of Planned Parenthood said.
“Abortion is a safe, legal medical procedure that one in four women in America will have in the course of their lifetime,” said Dr. Leana Wen, the first physician to lead the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in nearly 50 years.
“It is part of the full spectrum of reproductive health care, just like any other aspect of health care, and should not be singled out,” she said.
Wen spent her third day on the job visiting Phoenix, meeting with Planned Parenthood Arizona and members of the public-health community.
She told in an interview that that there is a “real probability” that the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade could be overturned or further eroded.
“I am a doctor and a scientist and I have to look at the evidence and the data. The data are that there are 15 cases that are one step away from the Supreme Court that directly affect access to reproductive health,” she said.
If Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, one in three women of reproductive age in the United States could be living in states where abortion is banned, outlawed or criminalized, Wen said.
Arizona would be one of those states, said Bryan Howard, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona. Roe v. Wade is the only thing that has suppressed an Arizona law that has been on the books since 1906, Howard said. The law says abortion is a criminal offense for both the patient and the doctor and the constitutionality of that law was held up as recently as 1972, he said.
“If Roe v. Wade goes away, the state Supreme Court has already said this criminalization is legal under the Arizona constitution,” Howard said. “A woman seeking an abortion could be sent to jail, a physician providing an
abortion can be sent to jail up to five years and women as a result will go underground.”
“This isn’t some fictional, theoretical exercise,” he added. “When we are talking about women’s lives being at risk. That is the case in Arizona.”
He noted that 57 percent of Arizona women who had an abortion in 2017 already had one child at home.
“This is about women and families making decisions about their futures,” Howard said. “They are making decisions about the well-being of their families and their ability to provide for their families . ... It makes perfect sense they are going to take extreme measures in the event this is illegal.”
Criminalizing a procedure does not reduce the need for it, Wen said. What works for reducing unintended pregnancies and the need for abortions is birth control, comprehensive sex education and access to a full range of reproductive health services.
“And yet, less than 24 hours after the elections last week, we saw the Trump administration come out with new rules that will allow employers to deny women birth control coverage. So how does that make sense?” Wen said.
“If the goal is to reduce unintended pregnancies, let’s invest in what works.”
And when women do seek out abortions, the decisions are deeply personal and emotional, she said.
Wen has treated women who became pregnant because their birth control failed. She’s treated other women with much-desired pregnancies where something went medically wrong — she recalled one patient diagnosed with metastatic cancer during her pregnancy who needed an abortion to save her life.
In another case, a woman found out at 19 weeks that the lungs of the twins she was carrying would never develop. Had she carried them to term, the babies would have suffocated upon birth.
“I don’t understand who it is who thinks they can impose their own views on these women,” she said. “I think about what’s at stake, and what’s at stake is women’s lives. The cost of politics is women’s lives.”
Women’s health care should not be politicized, yet it is specifically singled out and stigmatized in a way that would not be acceptable for any other aspect of health care, she said.
“It does not make sense to decide what should be appropriate medical care,” she said. “It should be up to doctors. Voters and everyday people don’t want politics in the exam room and politicians in Washington to be making the decision about health care. As a doctor I trust my patients to make the best decisions for themselves.”
Wen’s plans moving forward are to continue Planned Parenthood’s tradition of providing access to health care across the U.S., including a full range of reproductive health care, plus primary care and cancer screenings.
She also sees her job as one of protecting access to health care.
“That includes fighting on every level — on the state level, on the federal level, because we strongly believe that reproductive care, women’s health care, is standard medical care,” she said. “All types of health care must be a fundamental human right.”
Prior to joining Planned Parenthood, Wen was the Baltimore city health commissioner. During her tenure there, Baltimore sued the Trump administration for cutting teen pregnancy prevention funds and won the restoration of $5 million in grant money.