RealChoice: Former "Employee of the Year" Wins Wrongful Termination Suit Against Planned Parenthood

Thursday, April 03, 2025

Former "Employee of the Year" Wins Wrongful Termination Suit Against Planned Parenthood

Mayra Rodriguez

Mayra Rodriguez won a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood when a jury found that she was wrongfully terminated for revealing problems in the three clinics she oversaw.

The sources are a mix of secular and prolife sources, but since Mayra won her lawsuit and the main differences among the sources are how things are worded, I'm pulling together my summary from all of them.

Mayra decided to work at Planned Parenthood because she believed that she would be able to help women, especially Hispanic women such as herself. During the interview she was asked her views on abortion and gave the response she believed appropriate as what might be called a "personally opposed" Christina: "I wouldn't have one, but if someone else does, who am I to judge?"

She was hired. She worked for Planned Parenthood for 17 years.

At first, Mayra worked at a center that didn't do abortions, but she rose through the ranks and became Director of Planned Parenthood facilities in Phoenix and Flagstaff. Still, she wasn't involved in abortions.

Planned Parenthood Tempe AZ

Things changed after she was named Employee of the Year in 2016, and Planned Parenthood made her director of their largest Arizona abortion facility. She hadn't wanted the position, but told Catholic News Agency that she was told that the north Phoenix center was being closed and they couldn't promise she wouldn't be let go when the center closed.

Speaking to the Culture of Life podcast, Mayra said that everything at the abortion facility was about fast turnaround and abortion sales. She was to see as many patients as possible, as many as 50, and to get them all processed by 4 pm so the abortionist wouldn't have to work late. She was dismayed by the rush and lack of personalized care.

Mayra also became concerned about malpractice, One doctor, only identified as "Dr. X,'" left a lot of his patients with complications. Mayra brought this to the attention to the lead clinician and was assured that the problem would be addressed, but it wasn't. After one 19-year-old patient underwent a second-trimester D&E at 14 weeks, which involves dilating the cervix then removing the fetus in pieces using forceps. Dr. X told an assistant to account for all of the baby's body parts while he inserted an IUD. The aide told Dr. X that the baby's head was not accounted for. The aide told Mayra, who went to the doctor and he told her "Go find one in the trash." This shocked and angered Mayra, but she stood her ground. The doctor removed the IUD and used ultrasound to find and remove the baby's head.

She also said that she saw doctors falsifying medical records by incorrectly reporting complications, or not reporting them at all. She reported that often the surgical abortion documentation was completed at the beginning of the day, noting no complications, all fetal parts accounted for, and so on, and would then just sign them at the end of the day regardless of what had actually happened during the procedure.

Mayra also said that she questioned the way Planned Parenthood was shifting money around so that though on paper they were not using tax money to fund abortions, the way things were shifted around, the money was indirectly subsidizing abortions.

Mayra said that as she continued to point out problems, she was treated like a bad employee. She got a memo accusing her of not adhering to Planned Parenthood policies. Mayra told HR that she thought the memo was intended to silence her. She also reported being cited for having narcotics in her desk when she actually had non-narcotic clinic medications that she was storing until passing it on the the proper department. Nevertheless, in October of 2017 she was fired on the grounds of violating a controlled substance policy.

When Mayra sued for wrongful termination, Planned Parenthood used the fact that she had been in the country illegally since the age of 18 and had used falsified documents to get her job in order to discredit her. However, Mayra won $3 million in her wrongful termination suit in a trial that took two weeks. She did not return to Planned Parenthood. She now works with And Then There Were None, an organization that helps abortion workers find jobs where they aren't involved in abortion.

Mayra tells her story here.

Sources: