Employees lash out at Planned Parenthood execs in wake of layoffs

By: Carole Novielli, originally published September 19, 2025, National Right to Life

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio (PPGOH) is blaming the Big Beautiful Bill for its layoffs across the state, while PPGOH staffers claim executives were unwilling to slash their  own  pay to save those staffers’ jobs.

Key Takeaways:

• Employees of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio say executives could have saved their jobs if executives had agreed to take a 25% pay cut. That did not happen, with executives claiming that cutting their salaries wouldn’t have fixed the loss.
• The affiliate was reported to have handled finances incorrectly, despite attempts to blame federal defunding.
• PPGOH’s layoffs and closures, as well as those of other affiliates, were announced either prior to federal defunding or while the defunding measure was blocked by a judge.

“In the wake of looming staff layoffs, unionized members of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio have asked the organization’s executives take a 25% pay cut to ensure that frontline staff stays on the job,” Cleveland.com  wrote  in August.

That apparently did not happen. A report from the  Cleveland Scene   noted  that PPGOH’s president, Erica Wilson-Domer, claimed, “The impacts of a total $10 million funding loss unfortunately cannot be solved entirely through cutting executive compensation.”

As a result, “[n]early 10% of PPGOH’s staff was laid off,” PPGOH  announced  on September 2. “In total, 21 staff members were affected… amounting to over $1.3 million saved for the organization… This comes after the organization has faced mounting attacks from the Trump administration, including the loss of Title X funding and Medicaid defunding through the federal reconciliation bill,” PPGOH claimed.

The Backstory:

The 2025 Reconciliation Act removed Medicaid dollars from entities that provide abortion (as of October 1, 2025) and which have received more than $800,000 in Medicaid expenditures during a previous fiscal year. The “Big, Beautiful Bill” was signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025 and commenced on July 7, 2025.

As  previously noted  by Live Action News:

… Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah   filed a lawsuit  against HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and  immediately  thereafter, the Obama-appointed judge issued a  temporary restraining order  (TRO). The Trump administration  issued a response  to the judge’s TRO in a memorandum filed on July 14.

• July 21, 2025: U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani  released  a 36-page  memorandum and order  putting in place a preliminary injunction against the  defunding  of Planned Parenthood.
• July 28, 2025 : Judge Talwani  issued a new, expanded preliminary injunction  ordering the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to continue federal Medicaid funding for all Planned Parenthood facilities nationwide.
• September 11, 2025 : The First Circuit Court of Appeals  ruled  that the “The July 21, 2025 preliminary injunction and the July 28, 2025 preliminary injunction are hereby stayed pending disposition of the respective appeals” allowing Planned Parenthood to be defunded while the case proceeds.

The Details:

A January 2025  Matter News  report  alleged  a number of problems existed atPPGOH ,  causing mergers to occur and staffers to unionize.

“About a year ago, management decided to do some layoffs and close down three health centers. It came out of the blue,” Olivia Oney, the Central Ohio Field Manager for PPGOH, told  Matter News . “They kept saying it’s due to finances. Part of that is due to abortion bans, so I can’t blame them entirely,  but it’s also due to them not handling finances correctly…. ”

In  August, even before the Defund bill was implemented, the affiliate  announced  “staffing reductions were on the horizon,”  reported   Ohio Capital Journal.

The  Cleveland Scene  indicated that PPGOH planned to impose pay cuts upon the remaining staffers:

About $2 million in “director-level and above” spending was being cut “in an effort to reduce overall costs” concerning patient care, PPGOH allegedly told the media outlet.

Cleveland Scene  claimed that Brian Pearson, “whose organization oversees the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 98, which is bargaining on PPGOH employees’ behalf, frames the current impasse… as part of a growing trend.”

“It’s this common theme of workers, even those that are unionized, not having a seat at the table,” Pearson said. “And I’m definitely fed up about it.”

Unionized staffers blasted Planned Parenthood in a  public letter: “As of 8/18/2025, PPGOH management verified that there are no plans for any of the Senior Leadership Team to take pay cuts to try to save PPGOH jobs…”

September 2, 2025 PPGOH  announced  they had “finalized the reduction in force,” and according to  Cleveland Scene . “No Planned Parenthood leaders… have agreed to take any pay cuts.”

The Context:

Even before Planned Parenthood lost a single penny of the  nearly $800 million  they received from taxpayers, they threatened to  close  hundreds of facilities, seeking  bailouts  from states with pro-abortion leadership in a  ruse  to fill their coffers.

In  truth, Planned Parenthood — which  lost donors  due to its own “mission creep” and utilizes  deceptive marketing practices  to lure clients — was  playing the victim  for political gain, as it had already been planning closures and consolidations with a  deliberate move toward telehealth  in all of its affiliates.

As Planned Parenthood  shuttered  brick-and-mortar facilities and laid off staff, it intentionally drove clients to online  telehealth  — including the mailing of abortion pills. Its “Virtual Health Centers (VHCs)” are popping up across the country as part of a larger  restructuring plan  put in place  years ago.

One Planned Parenthood Keystone staffer  told   NewLaborForum. cuny.edu:

In  2023, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) made the “strategic decision” to restructure by  laying off staff  at the national level and using those dollars to “build a powerful movement for abortion access at the local and state level.”

By 2025, multiple layoffs were announced prior to the passage of the Defund bill, and even while the bill was blocked by the courts.

• FEBRUARY:  The  Flatwater Free Press   wrote,  “Planned Parenthood clinics across the country are struggling financially and dealing with high turnover as most of the organization’s fundraised money goes to legal and political causes, a recent  New York Times [NYT] investigation  found,” with NYT noting that “ Greater New York … laid off and furloughed hundreds of employees….” (emphasis added)
• APRIL:   Planned Parenthood of Michigan   announced,  “Planned Parenthood of Michigan (PPMI) is reducing its brick-and-mortar footprint and reorganizing operations statewide to ensure long-term sustainability… As part of this reorganization, PPMI will also reduce staffing by 10 percent, impacting clinical, programmatic, and administrative teams.”  Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho  (PPGWNI) staffers  claimed  that that the affiliate had “[a] track record of  poor labor conditions, a deep dive into executive compensation, ghosted donors, an upcoming merger and a 20-year-old discrimination case.” They pointed out that “Staff downsizing often follows a merger.” Staffers reportedly received a letter claiming that if “more staffing changes are needed, they will happen later this spring or early summer.”
• MAY: Planned Parenthood North Central States  (PPNCS)  announced  it would “close and consolidate eight health centers with 66 staff members impacted by layoffs and an additional 37 staff receiving offers of reassignment.”
• JUNE to AUGUST:  “ Planned Parenthood Mar Monte , Inc. filed 2 WARN layoff notices from Jun 2025 to Aug 2025 in  California. 27 employees were laid off in total from these layoffs,” reported  WarnTracker.com. (emphasis added)
• JULY: Planned Parenthood Great Rivers   announced that  it  had“made the difficult decision to reduce its administrative workforce,” adding that “Effective August 1, 2025, PPGR will operate on a reduced workforce across administrative functions, including human resources, research, education, and marketing.”  Planned Parenthood Mar Monte , Inc.’s  Notice of Layoff/Reduction in Force  warned, “The layoffs are anticipated to affect employees who work out of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Inc.’s offices located at, 2633 16th Street, Bakersfield, CA 93301.” Additional California affiliates also  posted notices.  Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast  (PPGC) issued  layoff notice s impacting 114 employees.  Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region  closed two facilities and  claimed  “every effort is being made to minimize layoffs and ease the transition for affected employees.”
• AUGUST:  “ Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio  (PPGOH)  announced  that it will reduce its workforce.”

“What benefits the national organization doesn’t always translate into improvements for affiliates,” the  Wall Street Journal  reported  in July. “According to a former senior executive at the national office,  outrage tends to fuel donations ; the more restrictions on abortion, the more it benefits the national office…. Some former staff members describe the national office as bloated, with too many employees making too much money in undefined roles” (emphasis added).

The Bottom Line :

Sarah Jaffe, author of the  book,  Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exhausted, Exploited, and Alone,  claimed  that sources within Planned Parenthood repeatedly noted increased donations post-2016.

“Everybody was donating to the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, which, not coincidentally, both had union struggles going on,” Jaffe said. “There’s a real sense that there’s money coming into this organization, [but] it’s not being spent on the right thing,” she stated.

Carole Novielli is an author at Live Action News.

This article appeared at  Live Action News  and was reposted with permission.

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