Barbara Zdravecky, CEO of Planned Parenthood in Manatee, Sarasota, gives state-of-agency address

MANATEE -- Planned Parenthood survived a summer of protests, secretly taken videos, a dispute with Florida over second-trimester abortions, political defunding pressure and cyber-hacking, but not without "significant damage to our brand," according to the chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida.

Barbara Zdravecky, a 30-year resident of Anna Maria Island, registered nurse and CEO of the Planned Parenthood that serves Sarasota and Bradenton, gave a state of the organization report this week.

"We are starting to come out," Zdravecky said. "We've had significant damage to our brand. There have been a great number of protests, and some patients have told us they are afraid to come in. But it also has engaged a lot of our supporters to come and stand with us. I wanted to tell our story so people close to us would have the opportunity to ask questions."

Much of Zdravecky's address during "A Conversation with Planned Parenthood's President" dealt with the highly publicized attacks on the national organization of Planned Parenthood by anti-abortion groups, including the July release of videos that showed Planned Parenthood employees talking about the fetal tissue program in a way that may have seemed cavalier to the public.

But Zdravecky also revealed many more battles, including a massive cyber-hacking that shut down patient portals.

She spoke of a summer that saw Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards appear before Congress and a dispute that is headed to court involving the gestational age of pregnancy.

But it all started with the videos.

"On July 10, I got a call from the Planned Parenthood Crisis Response Team talking about a buzz they were hearing that some videos were going to be released," Zdravecky said.

"Our first glance at the videos was a complete horror for everyone involved, including our doctor," Zdravecky said. "She sure didn't expect her face shown over national TV in such a terrible way. The media then jumped on this as well as a branch of the Republican Party that was actually complicit in these films."

Zdravecky claims the group that released the videos, Center for Medical Progress, actually put together a fake company with even an Internal Revenue Service approval for doing not-for-profit research.

"They hired actors and actresses and posed as a legitimate company for three years," Zdravecky said. "They got into our national meetings and toured our health centers. They talked about the need for research. Our doctor believed she was having lunch with colleagues. It was horrible to watch and look at. She believed she was having a regular medical conversation with people genuinely involved."

The Bradenton Herald was not able to reach Center for Medical Progress for comment Monday.

Zdravecky said the infiltration by Center for Medical Progress is one of 10 infiltrations by groups trying to entrap Planned Parenthood employees while posing as patients or by other means.

"They are trying to get our employees to say something wrong in order to blow up our business and have a lot of questions asked," Zdravecky said.

Zdravecky said it was "no coincidence" that the release of the videos came at the exact time when funding for Planned Parenthood would be coming up in the Congressional budget talks, as well as the Republican presidential debates.

Zdravecky defends the fetal research as important in the study of polio, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

"We don't do fetal research in our area," Zdravecky said. "But the way it was portrayed made it look like we were all doing it and making huge profits."

A dispute with the state

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, or AHCA, is in a dispute with Planned Parenthood over the definition for the gestational age of a pregnant woman, Zdravecky said during her address.

AHCA stated that three Florida Planned Parenthood facilities were performing second trimester abortions while being licensed to perform first trimeter abortions.

"Their definition is different from how we have calculated it for the last nine years," Zdravecky said. "We use ultra sound, which is the most current tool for determining gestational age of pregnancy."

"We are still embattled," Zdravecky added. "We had to get lawyered up to begin a defense of something that we believe is not an issue, but we have to prove ourselves innocent. It's quite a furor. This has gotten to be much more political. We are scheduled to go to hearings in November or December. This has taken a lot of money from the state and certainly a lot of money to defend ourselves. For the month of August, our attorney bills were more than $50,000."

During these battles, a faction hacked into Planned Parenthood and shut down web sites, Zdravecky said.

"They hacked into our patient portals and we had a major security issue," Zdravecky said. "Hackers from around the world, including Russia and England took part. I know it sounds like a movie. We had to have an expert security company come in and look at our website in order to rebuild it. We are not totally back up yet. But a lot of what we usually use is up."

The cyber attacks occurred at the same time Planned Parenthood of Central Florida and Southwest Florida was merging with Planned Parenthood of Collier County in Naples and Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, Zdravecky said.

"There we are, organizing staff and bring in a new culture and then, of course, all hell breaks loose with the videos and everyone's world turns upside down," Zdravecky said. "So much of our work became comforting staff and communicating, communicating, communicating as we tried to bring out the truth of what was happening."

Richard Dymond, Herald health reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7072 or contact him via Twitter@RichardDymond.

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Barbara Zdravecky, CEO of Planned Parenthood in Manatee, Sarasota, gives state-of-agency address ."