The former director of three Planned Parenthood clinics in Arizona alleged Saturday that the organization pressures illegal immigrants to get abortions by threatening them with deportation.
Mayra Rodriguez, who spoke at the Democrats for Life of America’s annual conference in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend, claimed the abortion giant roped her in when she was undocumented herself, according to The Christian Post.
“For 16 years, I devoted my life to Planned Parenthood,” she said. “As an undocumented immigrant, Planned Parenthood opened the doors to the American dream. … They hired me knowing I was undocumented.”
Explaining how she saw Planned Parenthood’s willingness to hire her despite her lack of citizenship as “the greatest and the most kind” thing they could do, Rodriguez said she later learned they had brought her on to attract other illegal immigrant women who didn’t know what Planned Parenthood is.
As The Christian Post reported:
After 16 years with the company, Rodriguez was promoted to abortion director at “the biggest [Planned Parenthood] clinic in the state of Arizona.” Rodriguez’s promotion made her aware of what she said is “the deception of Planned Parenthood” on the abortion issue.
Rodriguez, who now resides in the U.S. legally, noted that many illegal immigrant women who work in fields are raped by their foremen and then taken to Planned Parenthood.
She said Planned Parenthood officials tell “immigrants that they’re welcome there: ‘we won’t deport you, we won’t call ICE on you. But if you carry your baby and go to the hospital and you live, for example, in Arizona or Ohio or other states where they have very strict anti-undocumented people laws, you may get deported.'”
“So when you have that, what do women think?” she asked. “’Oh, I cannot have a child because I might get deported, and I could get separated from my other three kids.’ … As an immigrant, I can tell you it is the worst feeling ever to know that you may have to leave this country.”
Rodriguez noted how she eventually changed her mind about Planned Parenthood as she observed what goes on in their abortion clinics. “I noticed all the atrocities,” she said. “I noticed the irregularities. I noticed the malpractice. I noticed all the stuff the abortionists at Planned Parenthood hide from people. And I complained about it.”
“That got me fired and got me set up,” she added. “Yeah, I was accused falsely of having narcotics in my office while I was out of my office.”
After being fired in 2017 when she reported unsafe medical practices, Rodriguez sued Planned Parenthood for wrongful termination under the Whistleblower Protection Act and won $3 million in damages. She is now part of the nonprofit And Then There Were None, which encourages abortion clinic workers to leave the profession.
Related: Former Planned Parenthood Head: I Was Forced Out For Not Promoting Abortion Aggressively Enough