Planned Parenthood bashes Trump in public, now they're privately begging for his help

Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading provider of abortions, publicly bashes President Donald Trump and other conservatives outspoken against abortion.

But now the abortion organization is privately reaching out to the president for his help over a confusing issue: Planned Parenthood's Rocky Mountains-area union.

What are the details?

Planned Parenthood has asked the Trump administration's National Labor Relations Board for its help to stop some of its Colorado staff from organizing a union, according to The Intercept.

More than 150 employees at 14 clinics across three states in Planned Parenthood's Rocky Mountain branches voted to organize in December. The employees claim they are not adequately paid or benefitted for their work and that turnover at clinics is too high.

After the Planned Parenthood employees' vote, Planned Parenthood bosses challenged their decision to the NLRB — in the case known as Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood Inc. v. SEIU. The government sided with Planned Parenthood in the first round, but employees have already appealed the board's ruling. The case now moves to the full five-member board.

What is PP saying?

Despite its challenge, Planned Parenthood claims it is helping its employees.

"We are not currently opposing efforts to organize our affiliate; we have asked the NLRB to consider whether all of our employees should be able to participate," a spokesperson for PPRM told The Intercept.

What are PP employees saying?

"We want a voice at the table and we are asking that Vicki Cowart drop her many appeals and sit down with us once and for all. Look us in the eye and talk to us about our struggles with wages, benefits and working conditions," the union bargaining team said in a statement.

Amanda Martin, a PPRM employee, disagreed with her employer's sentiment. She told The Intercept that if PPRM really wants to help its employees, it needs to stop challenging its employees.

"If PPRM wants to lift the voices of all of its employees, then it needs to prove it by stopping its effort to silence those that have decided to speak up and organize," she said. "Now that these Colorado clinics have organized locally, there is a clear path for other workers in our organization to come together in the way they best see fit, and we will support their efforts. All we want is to have a voice in our workplace. It comes down to the dignity and respect that all workers deserve."