In this issue:
- Planned Parenthood illegally took COVID relief funds; now it may owe millions to the government.
- Shakeups are happening at Planned Parenthood Southeast, as are expanded “services.”
- She was an esteemed employee of Planned Parenthood. Now she works to protect preborn babies and their moms.
PP Could Take Another Financial Hit, This Time from a COVID-Era Mistake
By Katie Brown Xavios
Last week, President Trump’s Small Business Administration sent letters to 38 Planned Parenthood affiliates asking for proof that they were eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program, also known as the COVID-19 relief program.
In 2021, STOPP founder Jim Sedlak explained that the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021,” passed by President Biden, specifically set aside $50 million for “family planning services.”
Sedlak followed this with the reminder that under the Trump administration in 2020, Planned Parenthood affiliates were able to sneak away with $80 million in PPP loans, even though they were not eligible. He explained, “Although not allowed, remember that the last PPP was specifically written to exclude Planned Parenthood, yet Planned Parenthood managed to get approximately $80 million in PPP loans anyway. Efforts by members of Congress to get Washington bureaucrats to get the money back from Planned Parenthood have not been successful. We are now expecting that Planned Parenthood will, once again, apply for and receive millions of PPP dollars under the current administration.”
Finally, it would seem that Planned Parenthood might be held accountable for this abuse of funds. The SBA is requiring that these 38 affiliates prove they were eligible for the more than $88 million in this COVID-19-era relief.
The Daily Signal reported last week that because of each affiliate’s connection to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, they violated the “less-than-500” employee qualification for the PPP loans. According to the Daily Signal, Planned Parenthood chapters that fail to supply the documentation requested by the SBA may be deemed ineligible for the loan and the subsequent forgiveness granted by President Biden and his administration.
Additionally, affiliates that the “SBA finds to have provided incorrect or false eligibility certifications will face ‘severe penalties, including repayment of the loan, ineligibility for loan forgiveness, and possible referral for civil or criminal penalties.’”
Let us pray that Planned Parenthood will face the legal ramifications of stealing the American people’s money via PPP loans. And let us continue to work for the total end of both Planned Parenthood and abortion.
Changes Come to Planned Parenthood Southeast
By Katherine Van Dyke
According to a February 2 article published in the Georgia Recorder, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles announced that it would be temporarily partnering with Planned Parenthood Southeast by leading the southern affiliate in expanding its “services” in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.*
This announcement comes four months after allegations from PPSE staff arose against its interim CEO, Mairo Akposé. These claims alleged that she “expressed conservative views on gender identity and that she is not fully supportive of Planned Parenthood’s stances on reproductive rights.”
One pro-abortion news outlet specified some of the allegations from staff, which included that Akposé wanted Planned Parenthood to talk about abortion less, that she didn’t use staff’s “correct” pronouns, and that she wanted to make a statement when Charlie Kirk was assassinated. However, Akposé denied the allegations and admitted that her Christian faith “grounds [her] belief in bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom—in every person’s right to access quality, compassionate care, including abortion care.”
While PPSE’s board of directors responded to these allegations and said that they “found no merit” to them, they explained that they were inspired to launch an investigation into its management and staff, but they allowed her to remain an interim CEO until they hired a permanent CEO. However, in December 2025, Akposé announced her resignation.
The abortion organization is now bringing in its top-paid affiliate and CEO to take over and run the southeastern affiliate. STOPP’s 2025 Report on Planned Parenthood CEO Compensation shows that PPLA raked in $155,081,369 in Fiscal Year 22/23, and its CEO Sue Dunlap earned the highest payment of $875,942 in her total compensation that year, as well.
While it is uncertain what the near future of PPSE looks like, the largest Planned Parenthood affiliate was brought in to lead in a desperate attempt to rebuild and rebrand PPSE. The article in the Georgia Recorder states that PPLA’s influence over PPSE is to ensure the real goal: “that patients across the region have access to birth control, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, cancer screenings and abortion services when allowed by state law” (emphasis added).
Whether these allegations are true or not, let us pray for the conversion of Mairo Akposé and all of those entrenched in the evil of the abortion industry. May they come to know God’s mercy and love and learn to respect, defend, and protect all human life—born and preborn. Additionally, let us pray that this affiliate, along with every Planned Parenthood affiliate, continues to crumble and close for good.
Whether you are physically able to pray peacefully outside Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities or you pray at home, ALL asks you to join us in our weekly Marian Blue Wave rosary for the end of all forms of abortion, for the end of Planned Parenthood, and for an end to all abortion facilities throughout the country.
*Note: There are currently no Planned Parenthood facilities operating in the state of Mississippi.
A Former Planned Parenthood Director Shares the Dark Truth
By Susan Ciancio
When you are confronted with truth—even though it’s ugly and terrifying—you can’t avoid it. This is a lesson that Mayra Rodriguez learned after nearly two decades of working at Planned Parenthood.
Mayra Rodriguez grew up in Mexico City and came to the US when she was 18. She originally wanted to become a doctor, but this proved difficult with her move to the US. Instead, a friend suggested she apply for a job at the place where she worked—a Planned Parenthood facility.
Mayra explained that she had never heard of Planned Parenthood and didn’t really know what they did, so in 2000 she applied for the job and got an interview. During the interview, Mayra was asked her opinion about abortion. She responded that she would never have one but that she believed it was a decision a woman should make with her doctor and according to her conscience.
Planned Parenthood hired her on the spot. She said it was the easiest interview she had ever been to.
Mayra told them she didn’t want to have anything to do with abortions, and they explained that she would be working on the “other side”—the side that provides women with birth control and sex education. Mayra said that, at the time, she was okay with that, as she truly felt that she was helping women.
She had no idea what she would face in the following years.
The “grooming” begins
Mayra explained that, “little by little, [she] started getting groomed,” as she was forced “into the abortion side.” She said that, at the time when she was first hired, women were taken into a room like “cattle” as they waited for their abortions. They were placed in front of a TV that played a video that “downplayed” abortion, and doctors readily dismissed any concerns that they may feel regret.
Because the administration knew that Mayra could speak Spanish, they eventually asked her to go into local Hispanic communities to tell women about Planned Parenthood’s birth control and abortion “services” and explain how they could hide their abortions and birth control from their husbands. They then asked her to go into schools to teach these same concepts to the kids there and to talk to them about judicial bypass—the process by which underage girls can petition the court for an abortion without a parent’s knowledge. She said staff even knew which courthouses had the “friendly judges” and would send the girls there. She called the whole process “sickening.”
The years went on, and Mayra received several promotions, including to center director, and she even won Employee of the Year. In 2016, she was promoted to director of the largest abortion facility in Arizona, and that’s when her “eyes started opening.”
Mayra explained that it was now part of her job to deal with moms and aborted babies. She helped bag the babies who were to be cremated. She helped staff count the baby pieces after the abortionist removed them from the mother. She saw the women crying in the recovery room. Then, because she was the facility director, she began receiving phone calls from post-abortive women in the middle of the night. Many were afraid because they were told they might experience some mild cramping, but the pain instead was “excruciating.” Women also called expressing their horror that they thought they were going to pass clots of blood, but they actually saw heads and arms of a tiny baby.
All of this started weighing on her.
Mayra then began receiving reports of patients who ended up in the ER because of perforations, and she heard accusations of “wrongdoings” perpetrated by the abortionist, including leaving a baby’s head inside a woman.
In addition to the horrific actions directly perpetrated against women within her facility, Mayra said that many staff members suffered from depression and abused alcohol. They drank at lunchtime, and they regularly met for drinks after work. As she explained, “With alcohol, you forget what you just saw.” Further, she said that it was widely known that those who complain about what they see just “seem to disappear” and are never heard from again.
In 2017, when Mayra complained to administration about what she was seeing, she was fired. She filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and won in 2019.
Learning pro-life truths
Meanwhile, Mayra knew she had to begin to heal. She explained that she had been “groomed” by Planned Parenthood to not trust pro-lifers, so she needed time to really learn about and research the truth.
She had been told that the people praying in front of Planned Parenthood facilities were paid to be there, that they didn’t care about the moms, that they only cared about babies, and that they would abandon the moms once they had the babies. Further, she was told that pregnancy resource centers were “fake” clinics. After she left Planned Parenthood, she was shocked to learn that none of that was true and that, in fact, the people who work at pregnancy resource centers often have more credentials and qualifications than those at Planned Parenthood. She came to truly understand that abortion should not be a “choice” and that all human beings are sacred and deserve protection.
These realizations and her newfound knowledge and desire to teach the truth led her to begin speaking about her experiences at Planned Parenthood. She soon joined forces with Abby Johnson, another former Planned Parenthood director, and began working with Johnson’s organization And Then There Were None as the global outreach director.
Mayra spoke in public for the first time in 2020 at the Arizona March for Life. This led to further speaking engagements around the country. Most recently, she is part of an upcoming Abby Johnson documentary called Unthinkable—a “shocking exposé of the abortion industry’s dirtiest secrets” that offers testimonies from former abortion workers. Mayra hopes the film will “change hearts and minds” and will help people understand the value of every preborn baby.
Today, Mayra continues her outreach with And Then There Were None and works as a client advocate for Loveline, a nonprofit that helps women find the resources they need after having their babies. She also does leadership training with 40 Days for Life and is often used as a witness for the pro-life side in battles against Planned Parenthood.
Mayra hopes that all people will open their eyes to the dark truth about Planned Parenthood and how it harms, not helps, women. As she explains, “There is a better choice than either working for the abortion industry or choosing abortion. There’s less regret when you choose life.”
It took Mayra nearly two decades to learn the truth. She hopes others learn it a lot sooner.
This article appeared as an Editor’s Blog in Celebrate Life Magazine at clmagazine.org/post/a-former-planned-parenthood-director-shares-the-dark-truth.
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