The former director of three Planned Parenthood clinics in Arizona alleged last week that the activist group threatened illegal immigrants with deportation to pressure them into getting abortions.
Mayra Rodriguez, who spoke at the Democrats for Life of America’s annual conference on Saturday, claimed Planned Parenthood did this exact thing to her when she was an illegal immigrant herself.
“For 16 years, I devoted my life to Planned Parenthood,” she said, according to the Christian Post. “As an undocumented immigrant, Planned Parenthood opened the doors to the American dream. … They hired me knowing I was undocumented.”
Rodriguez said she was eventually promoted to abortion director at “the biggest [Planned Parenthood] clinic in the state of Arizona.”
In this role, she met many illegal-immigrant women who worked in labor positions and were sexually assaulted by their foremen. Oftentimes, these women were then taken to Planned Parenthood, she said.
“Planned Parenthood officials would tell the immigrants that they’re welcome there: ‘We won’t deport you, we won’t call ICE on you. But if you carry your baby and go to the hospital and you live, for example, in Arizona or Ohio or other states where they have very strict anti-undocumented people laws, you may get deported,’” she said.
“So when you have that, what do women think?” Rodriguez said. “’Oh, I cannot have a child because I might get deported, and I could get separated from my other three kids.’ … As an immigrant, I can tell you it is the worst feeling ever to know that you may have to leave this country.”
She said Planned Parenthood uses the same tactics with young girls in high school and college who end up with unplanned pregnancies.
“They train you to tell them … and portray the horrible life if they have a child,” she said. “‘What are you to going to do?’ ‘Your mom’s going to kick you [out],’ ‘The school’s going to kick you [out],’ … ‘You’re not going to finish your schooling.’ ‘Your boyfriend’s going to leave you. …’ ‘Your parents are not going to be with you. They’re going to be tired of babysitting for you, and you’re going to have to drop out of school.’”
Rodriguez said she was fired from Planned Parenthood after she “noticed all the atrocities,” “irregularities” and “malpractice” that took place in its clinics.
In 2017, she reported the unsafe practices she witnessed.
“I noticed all the stuff the abortionists at Planned Parenthood hide from people. And I complained about it. That got me fired and got me set up,” she said. “Yeah, I was accused falsely of having narcotics in my office while I was out of my office.”
Rodriguez sued Planned Parenthood for wrongful termination under the Whistleblower Protection Act and won $3 million in damages.
“We need to stop the business of Planned Parenthood,” she said. “We need to stop the business of other abortionists attacking our women and going after our immigrant communities and minority communities.”
