Meagan Gallagher, CEO for Planned Parenthood Northern New England (PPNNE), suddenly walked out on her employer in April 2021. A year later, I wrote about how Planned Parenthood Northern New England is in disarray after they closed a facility in Vermont. Soon after that, they closed four more facilities in Vermont and one in Claremont, New Hampshire. They were still without a CEO and things were going from bad to worse.
Related: Planned Parenthood Northern New England Is in Disarray
Finally, after a long 17 months without a CEO, during which they lost their lobbying efforts to stop New Hampshire’s Fetal Life Protection Act from becoming law, PPNNE finally hired CEO Judith Selzer in September 2022.
Five months later, on the 50th anniversary of the Roe V Wade ruling by the US Supreme Court, one year after the ruling was overturned, Selzer wrote an op-ed bemoaning the loss:
This Jan. 22, we should be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Instead, our country is confronting a stark reality in which younger generations have fewer rights than the last, and one in three Americans no longer have the right to safe, legal abortion in their home state.
Anti-abortion forces want us to succumb to despair and darkness. But our hope, grit and unwavering faith that the long arc of reproductive rights will again bend toward justice burns brighter than ever.
There’s no chance I’m going to succumb to the overturning of Roe and just sit down. Instead, the fire in me burns brighter.
As the new CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, I am channeling my grief and outrage into efforts to rebuild a system of care that truly ensures every person has access to safe, legal abortion, no matter what.
However, in February 2023, after only six months of employment, after saying “There’s no chance I’m going to succumb,” Selzer did “succumb to despair and darkness,” she “channeled [her] grief and outrage,” and left her job, voluntarily or involuntarily. They are again without a CEO.
What are the chances they will be able to find another CEO after having two CEOs in a row walk out on them within two years, the second one after only six months? Something is seriously dysfunctional with this organization besides their extremism on abortion. They are imploding and it will be interesting what disaster awaits them next.