Statement on Gaza/Palestine by people who are:

PPFA Union Members, Former Employees, current and former Planned Parenthood Affiliate employees, and Planned Parenthood supporters and donors.

The statement that Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) released on December 5, 2023, does not fully represent the views, values, or opinions of all Planned Parenthood organizers and staff members. We, the undersigned, call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

As workers in the fight for reproductive health and justice in the United States, we cannot stay silent as we bear witness to a longstanding genocide funded by our tax dollars. For years, the state of Israel has worked with U.S. institutions to trade, export, and manufacture weapons, surveillance technology, and policing tactics that harm our communities.

To be clear: there is never an excuse to commit or justify collective punishment — which is exactly what is being carried out by the Israeli military as we speak. 

In the midst of rampant disinformation, including from PPFA’s statement, what we know to be true is that:

• As of May 30, 2024, siege and bombardment by the Israeli occupational forces on Gaza has wounded over 80,000 Palestinians and killed over 36,000, nearly half of whom are children. 

• After seven months of Israel's strikes, raids and incursions, 24 hospitals in Gaza are now out of service, while 493 health workers have been killed. 

• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are approximately 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with at least 183 giving birth every day.

• 37 mothers have been killed each day since October 7th, a rate of 2 mothers every hour.

• At least 183 women in Gaza are giving birth everyday and most do not have access to prenatal and postnatal care, and emergency obstetric services, with some undergoing c-sections without anesthetics.

• As of December 2023, over 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women were at high risk of malnutrition. 

• Many menstruating people have resorted to using period-delaying pills due to unsanitary conditions and lack of access to menstrual products. 

• Israeli airstrikes have struck schools, hospitals, and health centers — including the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association’s only reproductive health facility in Gaza.

• Israel has obliterated Gaza’s health care infrastructure, eliminating lifesaving care to ICU patients, injured civilians, and people living with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Due to Israel’s indiscriminate bombings, even more Palestinians will live with permanent disabilities.

• The siege has cut off vital supplies, including food, water, medicine, and fuel, which, last month, forced Gaza’s only cancer unit to shut down.

• Evacuation orders have forced doctors to abandon patients, including 4 neonatal children who were later found decaying in al-Nasr Children’s Hospital.

PPFA states that reproductive and maternal health care is a human right and must be provided at all times. PPFA staff members have brought their concerns to management. However, the organization has remained silent in the face of Israel’s apartheid, restriction of movement for Palestinians, deprivation of lifesaving health care, including reproductive health care — and the widely reported cases of verbal, psychological, physical and sexual abuse of Palestinian children, teenagers, and women in Israeli prisons.

For PPFA to ignore the Israeli government’s war crimes against the Palestinian people stands antithetical to their purported mission to fight for the dignity, safety, and rights of all people. We urge PPFA’s leadership to follow the lead of other reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations in calling for a ceasefire and an end to the U.S. funding of the Israeli government’s occupation and genocide in Gaza. 

We stand in solidarity with Palestinian people against apartheid, occupation, genocide, and displacement, and we call on PPFA’s leadership to do the same.

In Solidarity,

490+ Patients, supporters, donors, members, organizers, current and former workers, including those from:

PPFA Local 1199 

PPFA Local 500

PPFA Communications & Culture

PPFA Consortium of Abortion Providers

PPFA Data Strategy, Analytics, & Governance

PPFA Development

PPFA Digital Products

PPFA Education

PPFA Federation, Engagement, & Impact

PPFA Finance

PPFA Government Relations & Public Policy

PPFA Health Equity Steering Committee

PPFA IT Department

PPFA Litigation and Law

PPFA Organizing and Electoral Campaigns

PPFA Public Policy

PPFA Research & Evaluation

PPFA Stronger Change Office

Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Planned Parenthood Global

Planned Parenthood Float Teams

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon

Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates

Planned Parenthood Association of Utah

Planned Parenthood of California Central Coast

Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York

Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette

Planned Parenthood of Delaware

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai‘i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York

The Doula Project

Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho

Planned Parenthood Generation Action

WWU Generation Action

PPGA Chapter at University of California, Riverside

Mount Holyoke Planned Parenthood Generation Action

Planned Parenthood Generation Action at NC State

University of Redlands PPGA

University of Virginia PP Gen Action

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio

Planned Parenthood Great Plains

Planned Parenthood of Illinois

Planned Parenthood Keystone

Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts

Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts United SEIU

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles

Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte

Planned Parenthood of Maryland 

Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan, Washington DC

Planned Parenthood - Carol Whitehall Moses Center

Planned Parenthood of Michigan

Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund

Planned Parenthood North Central States

Planned Parenthood Northern California

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England

Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties

Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest

Planned Parenthood of Pacific Southwest Union

Planned Parenthood Action Fund of the Pacific Southwest

Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley 

Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates

Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania

Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania

Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania UE 696

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

Promotores de Salud - Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

Raíz - Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

Planned Parenthood - Park Hill Health Center

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic

Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region

REV Rising Teen Council Planned Parenthood Southwest Oregon

Cincinnati Surgical Center for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio Region

Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri

Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates

Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida

Black Organizing Program - Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida

Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi 

Planned Parenthood Texas Votes

Planned Parenthood South Texas

Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund

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Sources: 

“A Textbook Case of Genocide” Jewish Currents┃ “Building the Case for U.S. Complicity” Jewish Currents ┃  “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel” Congressional Research Service ┃ “How the Occupation Fuels Tel Aviv’s Booming AI Sector” Foreign Policy ┃ “How the US and Israel exchange tactics in violence and control” Al Jazeera  |  “Where Do Many Police Departments Train? In Israel” Amnesty International  |  “In Hebron, Israeli Military and Private Companies Test AI Surveillance on Palestinians” Foreign Policy  |  “Palestinians starve as Gaza war rages amid fears of exodus into Egypt" Reuters  |  “Women and newborns bearing the brunt of the conflict in Gaza, UN agencies warn” World Health Organization  |  “Pregnant Women in Gaza Are Undergoing C-Sections Without Anesthesia as Humanitarian Crisis Worsens” Jezebel  |  “After a month of siege, bombardments and a health system obliterated, pregnant women in Gaza are caught in a catastrophe - occupied Palestinian territory” OCHA  |  “Dire lack of sexual and reproductive health supplies, disease outbreak in Gaza shelters” IPPF  |  “Restrictions on Movement” B’Tselem  | “The Gaza Strip | The humanitarian impact of 15 years of blockade - June 2022 | UNICEF Middle East and North Africa” UNICEF  |  “Abortion in Palestine: How to Get Past Checkpoints” Lux Magazine  |  “Stripped, beaten and blindfolded: new research reveals ongoing violence and abuse of Palestinian children detained by Israeli military” Save the Children  |  “117 Palestinian Women and Child Detainees Released So Far in Prisoner Exchange as Addameer Reiterates the Call for the Protection and Release of Palestinian Prisoners” ADDAMEER | "Pregnant women and mothers in Gaza are fighting to keep themselves and their babies alive amidst healthcare collapse, the IRC warns" International Rescue Committee | "Strikes, raids and incursions: Seven months of relentless attacks on healthcare in Palestine" Doctors Without Borders

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*There are no plans to release the names of signatories on this statement to protect individuals from retaliation or doxxing. Please sign at your own discretion. Send any questions to reprosolidarityletter@gmail.com. According to OCHA, 24 hospitals in Gaza are now out of service, while 493 health workers have been killed. According to OCHA, 24 hospitals in Gaza are now out of service, while 493 health workers have been killed.