Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, Inc.’s headquarters, 302 N. Jackson St., Milwaukee. PPWI’s mission is “to empower all individuals to manage their sexual and reproductive health.”

Eighty-five Wisconsin organizations, all members of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, sent a public letter Wednesday to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s leadership alerting them “to numerous anti-Arab and anti-Muslim posts, likes and shares” its chief of staff, Lauren Lasry, recently made. (Screenshots of a sample of her posts are on the WCJP website; Lasry has removed the posts.)

“To be associated with such blatant and repulsive racism from one of the highest members of your team should be cause for considerable alarm,” the letter said. “To see such virulent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice puts your entire mission into question … We are concerned that Muslim and Arab women, or even young college students opposed to a genocide, who not receive equitable treatment from a Planned Parenthood facility in Wisconsin.”

“A lot of people saw the posts and were horrified and offended (although ‘offended’ is not a strong enough term); they brought them to our attention,” Rebecca Salawdeh, a WCJP executive committee member, said Thursday in an interview with Wisconsin Muslim Journal. “It is astonishing to me that somebody in that position would be posting these things.”

Addressed to PPWI president and CEO Tanya Atkinson and board chair Carrie Norbin Killoran, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson, the letter concluded: “We look forward to hearing how you plan to remedy this and what steps you will take to implement and enforce a welcoming, safe and equitable company culture that is not just cosmetic but is modeled by your leadership in the public sphere.”

As of press time (noon today), no response to the letter has been received, members of WCJP’s executive board confirmed. Wisconsin Muslim Journal emailed PPWI’s media relations Wednesday and left a voicemail Thursday to request comment from Atkinson and Killoran. 

PPWI has not responded to date.

Keeping friends accountable

“Planned Parenthood is important; we respect their work,” Salawdeh said. “Because of that respect, we spent a lot of time thinking about how to respond to the posts. You keep your friends more accountable than you keep your enemies.

“It was never our intention to add to right-wing talking points criticizing Planned Parenthood because their work is so incredibly important. But also because of their work, it was really important for us to respond,” she said.

“Palestinian, Arab and Muslim women depend on their services, as well as college students who may be very involved in anti-Zionist activism. They depend on Planned Parenthood not just reproductive services, but for their gynecological services for all kinds of things. We want to make sure that it’s a safe space for all women. With somebody with those really abhorrent views at the helm, we became very concerned that many women of color or Muslim women or women who are activists would not receive fair and equitable treatment or that policies that are being made in Wisconsin are being made that would detrimentally impact those communities.

“Reproductive justice is incredibly important and Planned Parenthood is a leader in that,” Salawdeh continued. “That’s why it has taken us a good month to consider our response. Also, so many of us are so busy with addressing so many parts of this genocide (in Gaza) and it’s also a challenge.”

What was so offensive?

The letter to Planned Parenthood explains that Lasry’s posts “characterize marriage to a Muslim man as a punishment, describe Palestinians as ‘barbaric, despicable, depraved monsters,’ mock images of Gaza families holding their murdered children, criticize students exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech, demonstrate support for a genocide and simply spread blatantly false facts.”

Speaking for herself, Salawdeh said, “As a progressive woman married to a Palestinian, as someone who has spent a lot of time in Palestine and Jordan, a post that stood out to me was about a proposed game show (a reality dating show in which a liberal, feminist woman who wants to ‘Free Palestine’ is sent to live with a Muslim man in the Middle East for six months). It shocked me at how incredibly anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim it was.

“And the once that describes Palestinians as barbaric, despicable, depraved monsters is just disgusting. That one speaks for itself.

“Another one she reposted compares the population in Gaza in 1948 and today (showing a rise in the population) and says ‘This is not ethnic cleansing,’ shows a complete ignorance of the history of Israel. Gaza, as many people know, is populated predominately by refugees who were driven from their homes.”

The letter notes that Lasry’s posts “strongly support actions that have been described as genocide by major human rights organizations.” It summarizes the findings from three reports about Israeli attacks in Gaza from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B’Tselem (an Israeli human rights organization).  

It also cites a United Nations’ report, Gender Alert: Gaza: A War on Women’s Health  that calls the situation in Palestine “a woman’s health issue.”

The hope

The goal of the organizations who signed the letter is twofold, Salawdeh explained. One, that “internally Planned Parenthood takes steps to ensure they don’t have somebody who has an anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Black or anti-brown people view in a leadership position and influence. If somebody was so willing to so very publicly make those views known, it concerns me that she is also making those views known in the workplace. We want to ensure these views are not tolerated and that someone with bigoted views is not making policy decisions. We want Planned Parenthood to take this seriously and address it.”

Two, “externally, we want to educate people about why this is so offensive and what is really going on, especially those we consider friends. We spent a lot of time under the Biden administration, talking to Democrats, seeing the need to keep our friends accountable, to help them see the extent of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Muslim views amongst people who purport to be progressive.”