PA Planned Parenthood Director Quits In Disgrace

The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday (December 1), that Emily Callen “offered her resignation to the board, according to an email from board Chair Dayle Steinberg to staff.”

Callen’s resignation came after staff members at Pennsylvania Planned Parenthood published an open letter that listed the following charges and a complaints against her.

• Emily Callen has repeatedly used stigmatizing language about abortion, and continually de-prioritized abortion in public facing work.
• Emily Callen refused to hold contractors accountable for repeatedly misgendering trans and non-binary staff and using racist terms like “illegals” to refer to undocumented immigrants.
• Emily Callen has repeatedly pushed back against staff members who suggest more gender neutral language when referring to sexual and reproductive health care, as is the standard set by our national organization.
• Emily Callen has refused to hold senior staff accountable for tokenizing and dismissing patient storytellers, making them feel like pawns and not people.
• Emily Callen has repeatedly tokenized BIPOC staff and board members, referring to their race in situations where it had no bearing.
• Emily Callen has belittled and dismissed the only woman of color on senior staff for bringing up issues of racism in the organization.
• Along with Board Chair Dayle Steinberg, Emily Callen failed to hold a board member accountable who has been openly racist during board meetings and in one on one settings with staff.
• After the murder of George Floyd, Emily Callen took over a week to agree to put out a statement in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives–only after the organizing staff demanded it.
• Emily Callen had a rapid response to the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, which included an email to the entire team and fundraising appeals, neither of which she did for George Floyd or any of the dozens of Black and Brown victims of police violence or ICE.
• While giving lip service to racial justice issues, Emily Callen has repeated racist stereotypes and disregarded the racist, white supremacist history of Planned Parenthood’s founding as unimportant.
• Emily Callen has sympathized with, and given credence to, a white supremacist who was threatening a staff member and their family, including two young Black children, in the wake of the Philly Uprising.
• Emily Callen disparaged the Spanish language by approving materials poorly translated by the non-Spanish speaking Communications Director.
• Emily Callen has contributed to a culture of not respecting vacation time or time off, and regularly contacts workers who are on PTO.
• Emily Callen has refused to pay for the basic necessities of working from home during a pandemic, like home internet.
• Wages have been stagnant for years – workers who have been with the organization in the same position for several years have not received raises.