Leana Wen, now the former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, was fired from the organization over what she calls “philosophical differences over the best way to protect reproductive health.” A few days later, she penned an op-ed in the New York Times explaining what happened and why, from her perspective. What she reveals about the organization’s goals and methodology is not only unsurprising, but confirms what conservatives have been claiming about Planned Parenthood for years.

Wen first writes that while she understood Planned Parenthood certainly performed abortions, she didn’t believe that should be the organization’s primary goal. “While the traditional approach has been through prioritizing advocating for abortion rights ... I believed we could expand support for Planned Parenthood — and ultimately for abortion access — by finding common ground with the large majority of Americans who can unite behind the goal of improving the health and well-being of women and children.” Wen admits “there was immediate criticism that I did not prioritize abortion enough.”

It’s not clear if Wen is genuinely surprised at Planned Parenthood’s goal to eschew even the optics of being an organization that provided healthcare while actually focusing more on abortions, but she certainly seems like it. Conservatives have claimed for years, correctly, that Planned Parenthood's sole mission is to perpetuate murder-at-will through abortion for any reason at nearly any cost.

Even so, Wen seems to have bought into the myth that Planned Parenthood still does provide some healthcare, writing, “People depend on Planned Parenthood for breast exams, cervical cancer screenings, H.I.V. testing and family planning.” While some of these things are offered at some locations, it’s not always available, and statistics show that it’s certainly not what people depend on Planned Parenthood for. According to their own annual report from 2017-2018, as the Heritage Foundation's Melanie Israel writes, Planned Parenthood “performed 332,757 abortions during the reported year, the most the abortion giant has reported since 2011-2012. In contrast, non-abortion services have declined significantly. Planned Parenthood reported a decrease in the provision of various services in 2017-2018.” Again, even as Planned Parenthood tried to revitalize their marketing campaign with false messages, conservatives often pointed out the statistics that didn’t match their ad campaigns.

Trying to re-manufacture and sell the idea, as Wen hoped they would, that Planned Parenthood was not “just a political entity and show that it was first and foremost a mainstream health organization,” may have been a somewhat noble goal, except that it started with the wrong premise. It would be as if Philip Morris, after selling cigarettes since the 1800s, tried suddenly to sell them alongside bananas in the supermarket.

In closing, Wen wrote, “We need to stop treating those whose views differ from our own with scorn and suspicion, and instead work together to safeguard our health, our rights and our future.” Perhaps this is ultimately why Wen was fired, because she tried so hard to deflect from Planned Parenthood’s goals. But they had no desire to divert attention from their real mission. And besides, has anyone ever known Planned Parenthood to really safeguard a person’s health?

Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.