Frontline Planned Parenthood workers say CEO Jodi Hicks shouldn’t play politics with Californians’ healthcare access, urge her to support Prop 40 in new ads and open letter at JodiDoesntSpeakForMe.com
LOS ANGELES – A series of new digital ads featuring Planned Parenthood worker Tori Barron is hitting California voters on their phones, tablets, and other devices this week. The message is clear: Jodi Hicks, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California’s President and CEO, doesn’t speak for all Planned Parenthood’s healthcare workers in her opposition to Prop 40.
“I’m a healthcare worker at Planned Parenthood in California,” says Tori Barron, a healthcare worker at Planned Parenthood in the opening to one of the ads in the series. “Jodi Hicks is the president of our organization,” she continues. “I can’t believe that instead of standing up for our patients, she’s siding with billionaires and their buddies in Sacramento… Without revenue from Prop 40, we’ll have to start laying off staff and cut back on patient care.”
Rank and file healthcare workers across the state have spoken out in droves to support Prop 40, the California billionaire tax. At the same time, Hicks and the organization’s leadership have failed to endorse the measure, opting instead to publicly undermine it. That’s despite warnings from healthcare workers and policy experts alike that California’s healthcare system will collapse without the one-time emergency tax on the state’s roughly 200 richest residents.
“If I could talk to Jodi Hicks, I’d tell her that she doesn’t speak for me and my patients. We support the Billionaire Tax, and she should too,” said Caitlin Madison, a healthcare worker at Planned Parenthood.
The launch of the new ad campaign coincides with the release of an open letter by Planned Parenthood workers to Jodi Hicks, in which frontline Planned Parenthood workers take their organization’s leader to task for failing to endorse the measure.
The open letter and ads can be seen at JodiDoesntSpeakForMe.com.
“…we are alarmed by the actions of Jodi Hicks, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, who has come out in opposition to Prop 40, known as the California Billionaire Tax Act,” the letter reads in part.
“Planned Parenthood affiliates in California have lost approximately $300 million in federal funding due to cuts from President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that prohibit our organization from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. As Planned Parenthood workers, we’re now facing unprecedented challenges, and our patients are struggling to access care,” it continues.
The Planned Parenthood workers’ support for Prop 40 squares with the results of statewide polling, which has found that 63% of healthcare workers support the measure, alongside 70% of union members, 80% of Democrats, and a majority of independent voters.
Support from Planned Parenthood staff comes as no surprise to the backers of Prop 40, who have seen firsthand the overwhelmingly positive view that their fellow frontline healthcare workers have taken of the proposed billionaire tax since the campaign launched.
“Healthcare workers understand what is at stake in this election. We can either demand that billionaires pay a common sense, one-time tax, or see provider organizations like Planned Parenthood cut critical care that patients rely on,” said Suzanne Jimenez, Chief of Staff at SEIU-UHW.
The Planned Parenthood staff join with healthcare workers across the state in supporting the commonsense measure to protect healthcare access, including the Committee of Interns of Residents / SEIU, SEIU-UHW, the California Nurses Association, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, and more.
Already, hundreds of elected officials, labor unions, and community-based organizations have endorsed Prop 40 as an urgent and necessary solution to keep hospitals open and healthcare costs from skyrocketing.
In the month of August alone, the California State Democratic Party, the California Nurses Association, and the state’s largest labor group, the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, all voted to endorse the Billionaire Tax, showing that Democrats and working families are united behind Prop 40.
The number of major supporters of the Billionaire Tax has far outpaced the number of groups opposing. Supporters include U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Ro Khanna, Teamsters California, AFSCME California, SEIU-UHW, Committee of Interns and Residents / SEIU, UNITE HERE Local 11, UNITE HERE Local 30, AFT Local 1521, Disability Voices United, Our Revolution California, Oxfam America, Color of Change, and many more.
Voters consistently support the California Billionaire Tax in public polls. A recent poll of likely 2026 California voters found that the billionaire tax holds a strong double-digit, 19-point lead statewide, with voters supporting it by a 57% to 38% margin. Support rises dramatically among constituencies that form the backbone of the Democratic Party, with 80% of Democrats and 70% of union members supporting Prop 40.
Prop 40 qualified for the ballot after supporters submitted more than 1.6 million signatures from Californians across the state — nearly twice the number required to qualify — making it one of the strongest citizen-led ballot qualification efforts in California history.
As Trump’s massive federal healthcare cuts begin to rip healthcare away from millions of Californians, support is growing for Prop 40, which makes more than 200 California billionaires pay a modest, one-time tax to keep local hospitals and ERs open and healthcare affordable for millions of Californians.
Billionaires already pay much lower tax rates than what working families pay out of every paycheck. They insist on paying less and sticking the middle class with the bill.
Prop 40 will enact a tax paid ONLY by Californians worth more than $1 billion, a small group of people who together hold $2 trillion in wealth – most of which will never be taxed due to loopholes that favor the ultra-wealthy.
By voting YES on Prop 40, California voters can raise about $100 billion to replace the healthcare funding Trump and his billionaire donors took from working people to hoard even more wealth. The funds will go to life-saving medical care for seniors, veterans, and families. It will allow millions of Californians to keep their health insurance and not see their premiums skyrocket. It will also help prevent teacher layoffs in our public schools and keep children fed through food assistance programs.
California’s more than 400 hospitals statewide have already laid off more than 3,400 healthcare workers, and a second wave of layoffs is expected as funding cuts from Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill” hit healthcare providers. Statewide, projections show the cuts could result in the loss of up to 145,000 healthcare jobs, impacting hospitals, clinics, and home care providers. California has already been grappling with a longstanding shortage of healthcare workers, leaving hospitals and clinics stretched thin even before Trump’s cuts.
Without revenue from Prop 40, these federal healthcare cuts are expected to put an estimated 83 California hospitals and clinics at risk of closure. Cuts and closures have already started, impacting communities from Los Angeles to Oakland to Glenn County.
About Prop 40, the California Billionaire Tax Act
Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill” slashed funding for healthcare in California to pay for more billionaire tax breaks. These cuts eliminate healthcare coverage for up to 3.4 million Californians and double health insurance premiums for millions more. Prop 40, the California Billionaire Tax Act, will make billionaires finally pay their fair share in taxes to keep local hospitals and ERs open and healthcare affordable for millions of Californians.
Vote YES on Prop 40 to save lives, tax billionaires.
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| Paid for by Yes on 40 – Billionaire Tax Now – No on 41 & 42, Sponsored by Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West. Committee’s Top Funders Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West Saikat Chakrabarti Ross Boucher |
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