'DEFUND 250': 10 lawsuits demonstrating why Planned Parenthood is not a leader in health care

On July 4, 2026, America will celebrate the 250th anniversary of her founding — but unless Congress votes to continue banning federal Medicaid dollars from abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, July 4 will also be the day that America's most prolific killer of preborn children will see those taxpayer dollars once again pouring into its bank accounts.

Planned Parenthood deserves to be permanently defunded — and Live Action News' series, 'DEFUND 250,' plans to remind the public of many reasons why.

Evidence of Planned Parenthood's misdeeds can be seen in many of the lawsuits filed against it throughout the years, with complaints ranging from horrific medical miscalculations and injuries to illegally operating facilities. Here are 10 lawsuits exposing some of the abortion corporation's biggest offenses.

Key Takeaways:

• Over the years, numerous lawsuits have been filed against Planned Parenthood.

• These lawsuits complaints include medical malpractice, wrongful death, wrongful termination, discrimination, and more.

The Details:

#1: Lawsuit against Planned Parenthood: Abortion pill caused toilet delivery of ‘fully formed’ 30-week baby

A 2021 lawsuit filed in the New York State Kings County Supreme Court alleged that a Planned Parenthood abortionist calculated a woman's preborn baby to be just six weeks gestation, and prescribed her the abortion pill. However, this appeared to be an egregious error, as the woman "painfully" delivered a “fully formed” 30 to 36-week baby boy into a toilet after taking the pill — an experience which left her "shocked and traumatized."

The lawsuit read (emphasis added):

Plaintiff began her regimen of Mifeprex and misoprostol on May 4, 2020.

That evening, Plaintiff began experiencing painful cramping and pressure.

Plaintiff went into full labor in the early morning hours of May 5, 2020.

Plaintiff experienced extreme and painful accelerated changes to her body, including a vaginal laceration or tear, as the delivery progressed.

At approximately 3:00 am, while sitting on the toilet, Plaintiff gave birth to a fully formed, stillborn baby boy named J.T.

Plaintiff was shocked and traumatized when she saw the lifeless, fully-formed baby in the toilet covered in mucous, blood, and the placenta.

After the woman contacted Planned Parenthood, she was reportedly directed to bring the body of her baby to the facility, where employees told her they would dispose of him, which caused her further distress.

“As a result of Plaintiff’s ordeal, she has endured significant stress, trauma, emotional anguish, physical pain, including laceration and an accelerated labor and delivery unaided by medication, lactation, soreness, and bleeding,” the lawsuit also claimed.

#2: TRAGIC: 22-week baby boy died after Planned Parenthood gave his mother the abortion pill

That shocking incident was not the only lawsuit a Planned Parenthood facility has faced due to incorrect gestational dating. According to a lawsuit filed in 2020 against Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, certified nurse midwife (CNM) Gannon Ward misdated the pregnancy of plaintiff Christin Lafo at just six weeks and three days before selling her an abortion pill.

Two days later, Lafo gave birth to a 22-week stillborn baby boy whom she named Kyle Shawn Brady. He, too, was delivered into a toilet.

As Live Action News previously reported:

The lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Southern New England and Ward states that Ward “did not exercise the degree of care and skill” in multiple ways, including failing to properly perform and read the transvaginal ultrasound, failing to identify the age and location of the baby, failing to perform an abdominal examination of Lafo, failing to identify “essential pelvic structures mistaking a sac-like structure for a gestational sac,” failure to perform an abdominal ultrasound, failure to comply with the minimum standard of care, and failure to consult with a physician when she was unsure of the baby’s location or viability.

#3: Woman files suit after Planned Parenthood abortionist perforated her uterus and bowel

A 2022 lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Southern New England stated that in January of 2019, plaintiff Corrin Thompson underwent an abortion and was horrifically injured, suffering a perforated uterus and a perforated bowel which required an emergency hysterectomy, an emergency bowel resection, and the emergency removal of an ovary and fallopian tube.

Thompson maintained that as a result of the botched procedure she experienced physical pain, mental anguish, emotional distress, and unexpected medical bills, all due to medical negligence on the part of the Planned Parenthood abortionist.

Planned Parenthood In Crisis: New York Times Reports Botched Abortions & Failed Procedures

#4: Court orders Planned Parenthood to pay $3M to whistleblower

Mayra Rodriquez, a former health center administrator of Planned Parenthood in Arizona, sued the abortion organization for wrongful termination after she reported a variety of fraudulent and negligent activity that was endangering patients at the facilities where she worked.

One the infractions Rodriguez witnessed was an abortionist who frequently injured patients to the point that many had post-abortive complications or problems. But when she alerted her management, she discovered that they all knew this, but "nobody wants to do anything about it."

Other misconduct she witnessed included falsification of affidavits and patient records, incomplete abortions, and failure to report statutory rape — which Planned Parenthood is required to do by law.

Rodriguez was eventually fired, leading her to file a lawsuit against the organization. In 2019, a jury unanimously awarded her $3 million in damages.

#5: 17-year-old Roselle died because of a Planned Parenthood abortion

In 2009, Roselle Owens discovered she was pregnant and went to the flagship Margaret Sanger Center Planned Parenthood in Manhattan for an abortion, where she ultimately lost her life.

According to a wrongful death/medical malpractice lawsuit filed by her brother, Thurman T. Owens, Roselle suffered from labored breathing as soon as the abortion procedure ended, yet abortionist Gerald Zupnick and the rest of the medical staff didn’t monitor her or provide her with the care she required. They also failed to contact an emergency medical team for 13 minutes. When she was finally transferred to the hospital, she had significant brain damage due to the delay in care. She died five days later.

According to the lawsuit, Owens said Planned Parenthood “failed to use reasonable care in the services rendered” to his sister. He also claims that Planned Parenthood “failed to fully inform Roselle and/or her family of the risks," noting that the organization referred to abortion "very common” and “safe” on its website.

#6: Accusations of antisemitism at Planned Parenthood detailed in discrimination lawsuit

In 2022, Ilana Gamza-Machado de Souza, who is Jewish and formerly worked as Planned Parenthood’s Senior Brand Marketing Director in the Communications & Culture Department, filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, claiming that it discriminated against her “based on race and religion,” and created “a hostile work environment, retaliation and unlawful termination, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964…”

In her suit, Gamza said she was “fired from Planned Parenthood for complaining about antisemitism at the organization.”

She accused the organization of “discriminatory and intolerable treatment,” alleging that as a result, she “felt extremely humiliated, degraded, victimized, embarrassed, and emotionally distressed” and saying she “suffered and continues to suffer severe emotional distress and physical ailments including extreme anxiety and severe depression.”

#7: Former Planned Parenthood employee’s lawsuit alleges continuing ‘racism’ without accountability

Former Planned Parenthood employee Nicole Moore filed a lawsuit alleging that the organization had a "structural racism" issue.

Moore's 2022 legal claim said Planned Parenthood "has blatantly ignored reports by dozens of its Black employees of systemic unequal hiring and promotion, more work for lower pay, overt hostility, and trafficking in stereotypes by leadership.” It went on: “Instead of addressing the issues, Planned Parenthood has doubled down by punishing employees of color who dare to speak up, pretextually disciplining them and creating working conditions so intolerable that they are effectively forced to leave.”

Moore's claim is unsurprising, given the organization's eugenic and racist history.

Is Planned Parenthood Racist? | Live Action News Now

#8: BOMBSHELL: Former employee sues Planned Parenthood for discrimination after cancer diagnosis

In 2017, former Planned Parenthood employee Angela Brown filed a federal lawsuit against the organization saying that it “intentionally and willfully discriminated” against her after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

The lawsuit claimed Brown was unable to take time off of work for her medical treatments, saying:

“The Defendant made it difficult for Ms. Brown to take a day off every three (3) months in order to have her biopsy performed. The Defendant told Ms. Brown to schedule her biopsies for Mondays, as that would make it easier for her to have the day off. The Defendant continued to make it difficult for Ms. Brown to get the day off for her biopsy, even when scheduled on Mondays.”

She was also told she could not take off work "without a valid reason," despite explaining that she had pain and bleeding due to her cancer treatments.

#9: Pro-life group sues Colorado State University, Planned Parenthood over body parts scandal

Ten years ago, shocking video footage from an undercover investigation by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) showed Planned Parenthood staff discussing the sale of the body parts of aborted babies for financial gain.

In response to that investigation, the pro-life group Faith & Freedom Coalition of Colorado filed a suit against Colorado State University and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains for “enter[ing] into a contract with defendant Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood whereby CSU was to purchase parts of human fetuses aborted by defendant Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood.” 

The plaintiffs claimed that “Colorado State University and Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood violated the state constitution by purchasing tissue of aborted fetuses and indirectly used tax dollars to subsidize abortions.”

#10: Kentucky governor sues Planned Parenthood for committing illegal abortions

In 2016, the state of Kentucky filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky for reportedly operating an unlicensed abortion facility, performing 23 abortions, and endangering women’s health.

At the time, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin said the organization had been operating an unlicensed abortion facility without hospital and ambulance transfer agreements, which had "plac[ed] its patients at extreme risk to their health, safety, and lives had an emergency occurred."

Bevin also said the facility used false documents to open, and that "Planned Parenthood knowingly and callously endangered the lives of its patients and began performing abortions."

The Bottom Line:

An organization that routinely injures women, discriminates against others, traffics in the sale of fetal body parts, operates illegally, and risks the lives of its patients no longer deserves a dime of taxpayer dollars.