Planned Parenthood workers shared horror stories of working for the nation's largest abortion provider in a new report as the organization faces renewed calls to cut its federal funding.
In a bombshell report by the New York Times published Saturday, over 50 current and former Planned Parenthood executives, consultants and medical staff from affiliates alleged they worked under poor conditions with "rock-bottom" salaries, even as the national organization raked in hundreds of millions in donations after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Clinic workers said it was common to run out of critical medical supplies, including pain medication. They claimed salaries were so low that many workers qualified for government assistance.
"We’re begging for supplies, and we get denied constantly because they just can’t afford it," Ashley Schmidt, a former training and development specialist for a Planned Parenthood clinic in Nebraska, told the Times.
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Over a dozen workers in the report said they did not receive adequate training for patient care, including learning how to draw blood and other tasks they were given.
The report also claimed that several clinics are using outdated equipment and need repairs. In one incident, clinic workers at an Omaha location said a backed-up toilet leaked into the abortion recovery room for two days, leaving patients sick from the stench.
Grace Larson, a former Planned Parenthood nurse who had been fired while trying to unionize staff, claimed clinics treated patients like they were on a "conveyor belt." She claimed that sometimes led to patients being prepped for the wrong procedure.
According to the report, Planned Parenthood has faced numerous lawsuits from patients claiming they received poor care, including incomplete abortions, unreported positive sexually transmitted infection test results and improperly implanted birth control devices.
The Times told the story of a woman who filed a malpractice suit after getting an abortion at 8 weeks in Albany, only to give birth 12 weeks later to a baby who soon died. According to her lawyer, there have been several complaints about that clinic.
In another example, a woman allegedly gave birth to a stillborn baby at the ER hours after a clinic inserted an IUD without noticing she was 4 months pregnant.
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Not all Planned Parenthood affiliates are suffering, however, the Times report said. Particularly in abortion-supportive states, there have been upgrades, salary boosts and low wait times at various Planned Parenthood clinics.
Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood, responded to the report, saying, "Planned Parenthood works relentlessly to fill gaps in a broken health care system."
"Every day, Planned Parenthood health center staff go to work and navigate obstacles few providers have to face: personal threats, intimidation, misinformation and politically motivated barriers," her statement continued. "They do so because they believe in reproductive freedom. The critical care they provide is deeply undervalued and inequitably reimbursed across the country."
Joe Solmonese, chair of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, also told the Times these complaints from disgruntled workers were "anecdotal" and not reflective of the overall quality of care patients receive.
The Times report highlighted the problems plaguing Planned Parenthood in light of renewed threats to the organization's funding.
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Planned Parenthood received $498 million in donations in 2022, but the majority of its funds do not go to clinics and are spent on legal and political battles over abortion rights, the report said.
Clinics rely on Medicaid reimbursements for non-abortion procedures, but those funds have been blocked in red states like Arkansas, Missouri and Texas, according to the report.
Planned Parenthood could also face cuts under the new Trump administration.
Last week, a conservative watchdog headed by former Vice President Mike Pence, urged Elon Musk, head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to cut off "wasteful" federal spending on Planned Parenthood.
"While we are grateful for your work eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the federal government, we truly believe that the opportunity to defund Planned Parenthood may be yours and President Trump’s greatest moment," the letter from Advancing American Freedom read.
Planned Parenthood received approximately $148 million in Health and Human Services grants and $1.5 billion in Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP payments from 2019 to 2021, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
Planned Parenthood said in its 2022-2023 annual report, that it received nearly $700 million in federal reimbursements and grants from the Biden administration from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
The organization warned earlier this month that withholding federal funds for the organization could put patients at risk of losing access to "sexual and reproductive care."
Pro-life activist Abby Johnson, a former director for Planned Parenthood who now helps abortion workers leave the industry, commented on the Times report.
"Even though I left Planned Parenthood years ago, the same things are still happening inside their clinics across the country that I witnessed: using expired medications, high turnover, horrendous working conditions, unqualified staff, huge sums of money not being used for patient care, and disgusting conditions of the clinics," she said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"Women deserve so much better than this. They deserve better than abortion," she added.
Fox News Digital reached out to Planned Parenthood for comment.
