Planned Parenthood, the nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care assistance both in the United States and throughout the world, has just appointed a new leader.
Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency room doctor whose work in Baltimore has drawn praise for providing quality care and reducing racial disparities in health care quality as well as infant mortality rates, was announced as the next president of Planned Parenthood on Wednesday, according to The New York Times.
Wen's family moved to the United States from China as she was approaching her eighth birthday, just after the Tiananmen Square massacre. The 35-year-old doctor grew up poor in Compton, Calif., and she overcome her disadvantaged socioeconomic background to become a successful doctor.
As the Times reported, Wen has not hesitated to take on the Trump administration when it goes after women's reproductive rights:
She has also pushed back aggressively on the Trump administration’s cuts to health care. She will take over Planned Parenthood’s leadership at a particularly fraught time. While Americans overwhelmingly support the organization, its Republican critics are pushing to cut its funding and eviscerate or overturn Roe v. Wade, and the Supreme Court is poised to tilt further right as critical cases on women’s health advance through the courts.
Earlier this year, Baltimore sued the Trump administration for cutting teen pregnancy prevention funds, which resulted in a federal judge ordering $5 million in grant funding to be restored to two of the city’s programs. She fought to preserve Title X funding for the city’s health clinics for low-income women, and is leading a lawsuit that accuses the administration of intentionally and unlawfully sabotaging the Affordable Care Act.
Cecile Richards, the outgoing head of Planned Parenthood, praised the selection of Wen. "She has dedicated her career to fighting for health care for all, both as a doctor and as a public health leader in the city of Baltimore," Richards wrote on Twitter. "I know she'll be a champion for Planned Parenthood patients and for women, men, and young people everywhere."
"Anyone who has worked with Dr. Wen knows that, when it comes to protecting her patients, she doesn’t back down from a fight," Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md), after whom Wen named her son. "In Baltimore, she has expanded care, found solutions around obstacles and, most important of all, saved lives. While Baltimore is losing its ‘Doctor for the City,’ Planned Parenthood is gaining a powerful new advocate."
Sarah Stoetz, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood for Minnesota and North and South Dakota and a member of the committee that selected Dr. Wen, expressed similar thoughts.
"Dr. Wen is fearless," Stoetz told The Times. "As an emergency physician, she has faced dire and urgent crisis and demonstrated her ability to quickly and very effectively save lives."
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