Six former Planned Parenthood employees alleged a “pro-life, anti-LGBTQ+ regime” took over their branch in discrimination charges filed in January with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Internal drama has been brewing at Planned Parenthood Southeast (PPSE) since former interim CEO Mairo Akpose, who staff complained “deadnamed” transgender employees, took over the affiliate in July 2024. The six former PPSE employees complained to the EEOC that Akpose didn’t do enough to promote an LGBTQ agenda.
“These six women fought to protect the identity of Planned Parenthood and they have refused to go quietly,” their attorney Artur Davis said in a Tuesday statement. “The many champions and funders of the Planned Parenthood community deserve to know that something went badly wrong in their chapter down south. Restoring PPSE is not possible without providing justice and remedying the damages to these women.”
Kaylah Oates-Marabl, former PPSE Georgia state director, alleged Akpose blocked her team “from participating in Pride events for the LGBTQ community, citing security concerns and budget constraints, despite the fact that no other affiliate halted Pride events and PPSE’s approved budget for 2025 accounted for engaging Pride events.”
“I’ve wanted to work for Planned Parenthood since I was 17-years-old,” Oates-Marable said in a press release. “Now that dream is a nightmare not just for me but for everyone who counted on PPSE when there was nowhere else to turn.”
Another staff member, former vice president of communications and marketing Jaylen Black, alleged Akpose cautioned her and others against talking about abortion “too much.”
Akpose also “scale[d] back educational outreach events aimed at the LGBTQ community,” former director of education Jessica Swanson claimed in her Jan. 27 EEOC filing.
Swanson argued her role was “being reduced for unlawful reasons: for example, external gender-based biases including the Trump Administration’s highly visible campaign to eliminate funding for reproductive health services administered by Planned Parenthood affiliates.”
An online campaign organized by staff alleging the branch was undergoing “a hostile corporate takeover” prompted the PPSE board of directors to retain “a nationally recognized law firm to conduct a thorough review” in October. The review found “no merit to the allegations” of political infiltration, PPSE announced in November.
Planned Parenthood Los Angeles announced on Thursday that it would help manage the southeast chapter, according to the Georgia Recorder. Akpose resigned in December, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Planned Parenthood dropped a lawsuit Friday challenging a provision of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill that cut Medicaid funding for the abortion provider.
“This Department of Justice stands for LIFE,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote Tuesday on X. Funding cuts have resulted in dozens of clinics closing across the nation.
In December, the Trump administration quietly restored millions of dollars in frozen Title X family planning grants to Planned Parenthood, which CatholicVote director of government affairs Tom McClusky told the Daily Signal the agency may have done because they were going to lose the lawsuit.
Multiple Planned Parenthood affiliates refused $2.3 million in unfrozen grants, which were previously withheld over diversity, equity and inclusion-related investigations, the Daily Caller reported.
Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Akpose could not be reached for comment.
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