2 months ago
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U.S.|Botched Care and Tired Staff: Planned Parenthood in Crisis
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/15/us/planned-parenthood-clinics.html
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Nakara Alston was leaving her boyfriend when she learned she was eight weeks pregnant. In desperation, she got an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Albany, N.Y., and moved with her two daughters into a homeless shelter.
But something was clearly wrong. Several weeks after the procedure, she was still bleeding heavily and suffering from painful cramps. She took another home pregnancy test, and when it came back positive, the clinic staff assured her that they had seen the aborted fetus and there was nothing to worry about. It was only after she went to an emergency room that she discovered the problem: The baby was still in her womb.
Twelve weeks after the failed abortion, Ms. Alston went into labor and delivered a baby who quickly died.
Ms. Alston filed a malpractice suit against Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood, one of several complaints about patient care at the New York clinic that women have brought to her lawyer, Louis B. Oliver. “Planned Parenthood provides a very important area of medical care,” Mr. Oliver said. “But I speak out and have sued them because even disadvantaged people deserve good care.”
Planned Parenthood is synonymous with the fight to preserve abortion rights. But it is also the health care provider of last resort to millions of the poorest Americans. Its clinics offer cancer screenings, birth control, annual gynecological exams and prenatal care, regardless of whether patients can afford to pay. The organization is unique in its reach, one of the few health care providers with a presence in all 50 states.
But a New York Times review of clinic documents and legal filings, as well as interviews with more than 50 current and former Planned Parenthood executives, consultants and medical staff members, found that some clinics are so short of cash that care has suffered. Many operate with aging equipment and poorly trained staff, as turnover has increased because of rock-bottom salaries. Patient counts have shrunk from a high of five million and 900 clinics in the 1990s to 2.1 million patients and 600 clinics today.
