On Sept. 21, 2020, leaders from Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country started talking. Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died days before, creating a vacancy on the Supreme Court that then-President Donald Trump filled with a more conservative justice. Reproductive justice advocates had long dreaded the chain of events that followed “She passed away on Friday. Monday morning we’re on the phone, looking at a map and saying, ‘Who’s going to go dark? What do we need to do?’” says Amy Handler, who was at that time the chief of education and community partnerships for Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon. “We looked at all of the possible delays to care and started thinking, ‘OK, we could potentially start seeing patients at later and later gestational ages. There are regional airports in Eugene and Medford. What are going to be all the access points?’ We basically looked at a map and said, ‘This is what we can each do right now.’” In May Handler became the president and CEO of PPSO, a Planned Parenthood affiliate headquartered in Eugene. The other major Planned Parenthood affiliate, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette, also hired a new CEO this spring: Dr. Sara Kennedy, an obstetrician and gynecologist who had most recently served as chief medical officer and chief operating officer at Planned Parenthood Northern California, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kennedy started at Columbia Willamette in March. Together, the CEOs of Planned Parenthood’s two Oregon affiliates oversee 12 of clinics — which altogether employ 362 people — across the state, one of which just opened in early 2023. Though they both have long careers in reproductive health care and public health, Kennedy and Handler BY CHRISTEN McCURDY | PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN Planned Parenthood’s New Plan It’s an interesting time to work in reproductive health care. Amy Handler and Dr. Sara Kennedy, the new CEOs of Oregon’s two Planned Parenthood affiliates, say they’re ready. Amy Handler (left), president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon and Dr. Sara Kennedy, CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette 36
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