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Six workers fired from an embattled Planned Parenthood affiliate sued their former employer this week, as well as its parent organization, claiming they were let go in retaliation for pushing back against new leadership who they say didn’t support key elements of the group’s longstanding mission.
The federal lawsuit against Planned Parenthood Southeast (PPSE) alleges that interim CEO Mairo Akposé, who was in the role from July 2024 to December 2025, steered the healthcare provider away from proudly offering abortion care or welcoming LGBTQ patients via community outreach. PPSE serves the states of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. The complaint also names Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) as a defendant, alleging that the national umbrella organization intervened following news reports of mismanagement.
In December, Autonomy News reported that Akposé considered halting abortion care in Georgia, the sole state in its territory where it is still legal—though only until six weeks of pregnancy. Akposé also repeatedly pressed staffers to justify certain services and roles based on whether they generated revenue, they say. She resigned later that month.
The new lawsuit suggests the turmoil went far beyond what was reported. A former executive used anti-abortion terminology at a public event and made inappropriate sexual comments to staffers, per the complaint, while leadership demanded that the Georgia state director stop scoring state politicians based on their LGBTQ voting records. The plaintiffs all lost their jobs between July and December 2025. They allege their firings were unlawful under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, and other protected characteristics, and are seeking lost wages plus damages and attorney’s fees.
“The simple fact is that we were fired from Planned Parenthood because we supported Planned Parenthood,” PPSE former vice president of communications and marketing Jaylen Black said in a press release. Black was fired in December while on medical leave for an injury; she’s also making a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
What’s more, this case is one of three legal complaints filed against the affiliate. Akposé herself is suing her former employer alleging racial discrimination, as is a former human resources executive. All of the plaintiffs first filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a prerequisite before filing a federal workplace discrimination suit.
A spokesperson for PPSE declined to comment on specific allegations in the lawsuits but said in a statement to Autonomy News that “we strive to create a professional work environment where every member of our team feels valued and respected.” Karen Doolittle, who was PPSE’s board chair during Akposé’s tenure as interim CEO, also departed, per the PPSE spokesperson. PPFA did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Staffers allege ‘jarring’ comments and discrimination
PPFA has nearly four dozen regional affiliates, which are their own independent nonprofits. As of late January, PPSE is being managed by another affiliate across the country: Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA), which announced that it would support the organization in an “interim leadership capacity.”
The controversy began with the PPSE board’s decision to name Akposé interim CEO in July 2024. Before that, she had served as the Atlanta-based organization’s Chief People and Culture Officer, a human resources role, since September 2023. Akposé had no prior experience in nonprofits, let alone those that provide healthcare, staffers say. In late 2024, the board called off the search for a permanent CEO, suggesting they intended to keep Akposé in the position, though they never changed her title.
After the 2024 election, Akposé told senior staffers she wanted to rebrand the organization as less centered on abortion, per the complaint. Then, during a 2025 meeting she said, “we talk about abortion too much.” These comments alarmed staffers as the Georgia legislature had recently considered a bill in the previous session that would have banned all abortions from fertilization and opened pregnant people to homicide charges.
Akposé appeared hostile to LGBTQ people, too. She refused to use the correct pronouns of transgender and nonbinary staffers, even though she listed hers in her email signature, and she referred to a transgender employee by their birth name on a leadership team call. Two of the plaintiffs said they pushed back on this behavior, one talking with Akposé, and another reporting it to HR and the Chief Operating Officer.
Plaintiff Kaylah Oates-Marable, the former Georgia state director who led political advocacy, alleges that leadership directed her in spring 2025 to remove LGBTQ policy issues from legislative scorecards that assess lawmakers’ voting records. Akposé also directed staffers to stop partnering on Pride events and told a Mississippi employee to withdraw from LGBTQ sexual health campaigns. Oates-Marable was fired in late September 2025. Two months later, the politics arm of PPFA said it planned to hire a new Georgia state director reporting to the national office—not PPSE.
Akposé did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Workers also raised concerns about Karen Rene, who Akposé hired in August 2025 for the newly created position of Executive Director. During a “Save PPSE” social media campaign, workers highlighted that Rene said in a 2022 interview that she was “pro-life.” She was speaking about allegations that then-Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker had paid for abortions and perhaps pressured partners to have them. “As a Christian leader, and I am pro-life, but I am also pro-choice,” Rene said. “Because I want to make sure that women are making the right decisions from where they stand, that no one is pushing them one way or the other.”
The new lawsuit alleges that, while at a PPSE community event, Rene referred to an abortion procedure as "dismembering babies," a “jarring adoption of anti-choice rhetoric that stunned and outraged several partners of PPSE who were present.”
Rene also allegedly made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature, telling Oates-Marable that she had a “body that women would pay for" and another plaintiff that she should “make a baby” with her husband during an upcoming vacation. Rene is currently running for a seat on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. She did not respond to a request for comment sent to her campaign email address.
All of the workers said that, upon their termination, PPSE said they wouldn’t be compensated for unused paid time off unless they signed a non-disparagement agreement blocking them from publicly criticizing PPSE, or making Title VII claims. The lawsuit says that demand to trade their legal rights for pay they were entitled to was illegal, as were the retaliatory firings for opposing discriminatory workplace practices and challenging PPSE’s policy direction.
The former workers argue that PPFA is a rightful defendant because of its level of engagement in the affiliate operations. The complaint says that, following negative media coverage of the embattled Southeast affiliate, PPFA made an "active intervention in the personnel affairs of PPSE—operational management, crisis management, hiring of personnel, reporting structure."
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It also makes an eye-opening claim that PPFA “directed” PPLA to assume management of the organization, which, if true, would contradict PPFA’s repeated assertions that affiliates make staffing and other management decisions independently. The plaintiffs provide no additional evidence for these statements. Again, PPFA did not provide comment for this story.
“Restoring PPSE is not possible without providing justice and remedying the damages to these women,” said employment attorney Artur Davis, one of the lawyers representing the six women suing.
Former interim CEO also suing
Akposé also sued PPSE last week, claiming that it racially discriminated against her. She is representing herself in the matter. While the board announced in November 2025 that an external review found no merit to allegations against leadership, her own suit reveals that PPSE ordered a second investigation into her actions. During that time, she said she was required to coordinate external affairs through a team at PPFA, another indication that the parent organization was involved in the response.
Akposé also said the PPSE board approved funds to retain a crisis PR firm to represent the board and Doolittle, its former chair—who is white—while denying her the use of PR resources even though a social media campaign repeatedly named her. Akposé alleged that senior leadership was also hostile to her after she drafted external communications referencing her Christian faith. Ultimately, Akposé said the organization fired her despite "shield[ing]" white executives and employees who Akposé had told the board were underperforming.
The third and final lawsuit was filed in September by Shaniq Carmichael, a human resources executive who alleges that PPLA wrongfully terminated her after it started managing PPSE. She is suing both affiliates. Carmichael said PPSE promoted her in January 2026, but that she “reported race discrimination and racially disparate treatment” to PPSE leadership, and in early February, to PPLA’s top HR executive. These conversations included concerns about Doolittle. Carmichael alleges that when speaking with the Akposé-hired Chief Operating Officer about concerns over poor treatment of Black workers, the COO said she needed to learn that "white is right." Days later, she was laid off due to restructuring, per the complaint.
Amid this turmoil, PPSE clinics remain open in Georgia—where abortion care is available—and Alabama. Though Mississippi is technically included in the affiliate’s territory, its website does not list available services there. A spokesperson said telehealth care is available to Mississippians through Planned Parenthood Direct, a national service.
This story was edited by Garnet Henderson and copy edited and fact checked by Nandita Raghuram.
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