Planned Parenthood Head Resigns

(AP)  Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for the past eight years, has resigned.

"Gloria made her decision to step down after a long 30-year career, and she has not made any announcements about her next step," federation spokeswoman Elizabeth Toledo said Thursday.

A national search for a new president will begin immediately, Planned Parenthood chairwoman La Don Love said in a news release. Karen Pearl, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Nassau County, New York, will serve as interim president.

"We honor Gloria Feldt's contributions to Planned Parenthood and to the global movement for reproductive justice," Love said. "Her leadership has resulted in significant achievements for the organization and for women and families worldwide."

The 90-year-old nonprofit is the country's largest provider of abortions, performing more than 200,000 annually. It has been a favorite target of abortion foes, whom Feldt once described as "guerrilla fighters" who resent changes that have given women more choices about sex and childbearing.

Abortion-rights activists have found an increasingly hostile reception in Washington and several state legislatures in recent years. Abortion opponents scored a major victory in 2003 with federal passage of a ban on certain types of late-term abortions, although two federal judges have found the law to be unconstitutional.

Planned Parenthood said that under Feldt, it helped protect medical privacy, introduce abortion pills and emergency contraception and win passage of laws in 22 states requiring insurance plans to cover prescription contraceptives. Feldt also was one of the lead organizers of the 2004 March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C., which drew tens of thousands of abortion rights supporters.

During last year's presidential election, Planned Parenthood for the first time endorsed a candidate, Democrat Sen. John Kerry, in reaction to what Feldt called "the Bush administration's war on choice."

Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc., based in New York, has been a polarizing organization since its precursor — a clinic in Brooklyn — was founded in 1916 by pioneering birth control advocate Margaret Sanger. Its clinics treat more than 2.5 million people a year, offering abortions, contraceptives, pregnancy and breast cancer tests, gynecological exams and other services.


By Chaka Ferguson