Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen Named Head Of Planned Parenthood

Baltimore health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen has been named the new head of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Growing up poor in California as a Chinese refugee, Dr. Wen, her little sister and mother received ongoing health care from Planned Parenthood.

Wen is a prodigy who enrolled at Cal State University at age 13, graduating at 18 with a degree in biochemistry. She attended Washington University in St. Louis for medical school and was a fellow at Harvard. Dr. Wen also studied public health at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

Before taking the health commissioner position in Baltimore, Dr. Wen forked as an emergency room doctor at George Washington University, where she was also a professor.

Dr. Wen says she is leaving a job she loves in Baltimore because of growing attacks by the Trump administration and other conservatives on Planned Parenthood and women’s reproductive health rights.

“I see how the single, biggest health catastrophe of our times is the threat to women’s health,” Wen said. “I am deeply troubled by how women’s health issues are singled out, stigmatized and attacked.”

Planned Parenthood’s need for an articulate and fierce public voice is filled by the outspoken commissioner who is widely known for her newspaper op-eds and TV appearances, writes The Baltimore Sun.

Wen lead a lawsuit against the Trump administration for cutting funds for teen pregnancy prevention, resulting in the restoration of a $5 million grant. She fought the Trump administration’s changes to Title X, reducing funding to 23 health clinics in Baltimore.

Responding to the Trump Administration’s efforts to install a domestic gag rule similar to the international one that has brought devastating cuts to women’s health clinics in poor countries, Wen fought back.

“So many of these politicians believe they rather than women and health professionals should be making decisions about women’s health,” said Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood executive vice president. “As a doctor and somebody who believes in science and facts, she is going to be able to take them on.”