In a piece of very good news, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has announced that they are breaking the partnership they have maintained for some years with Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is miffed, calling the decision “deeply disturbing and disappointing.” From The Hill (linked above):
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has broken off a partnership through which it provided cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. Planned Parenthood blamed the political controversy over abortion.
“We are alarmed and saddened that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation appears to have succumbed to political pressure. Our greatest desire is for Komen to reconsider this policy and recommit to the partnership on which so many women count,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Planned Parenthood said its clinics provided about 4 million screenings for breast cancer over the past five years, roughly 170,000 of which were supported by Komen grants.
Planned Parenthood said it has established an emergency fund to offset the loss of the Komen funds.
Komen told the AP that it ended its partnership with Planned Parenthood because of a congressional investigation into the organization. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce committee have requested detailed financial records from Planned Parenthood.
This seems like an utterly obvious thing for Komen to do, and frankly it’s surprising it’s taken so long. Planned Parenthood is radioactive for a significant and vocal minority of the US population. There is no reason for an organization whose sole purpose is to promote cancer awareness and research to associate them with an organization so polarizing.
“We’re kind of reeling,” said Patrick Hurd, who is CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia — recipient of a 2010 grant from Komen — and whose wife, Betsi, is a veteran of several Komen fundraising races and is currently battling breast cancer.
“It sounds almost trite, going through this with Betsi, but cancer doesn’t care if you’re pro-choice, anti-choice, progressive, conservative,” Hurd said. “Victims of cancer could care less about people’s politics.”
Planned Parenthood said the Komen grants totaled roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before, going to at least 19 of its affiliates for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services.
Komen spokeswoman Leslie Aun said the cutoff results from the charity’s newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. According to Komen, this applies to Planned Parenthood because it’s the focus of an inquiry launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., seeking to determine whether public money was improperly spent on abortions.
Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has depicted Stearns’ probe as politically motivated and said she was dismayed that it had contributed to Komen’s decision to halt the grants to PPFA affiliates.
“It’s hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women’s lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying,” Richards told The Associated Press. “It’s really hurtful.”
It’s unfortunate that it took a technicality such as Planned Parenthood being under Federal investigation in order to get this partnership broken off. One would hope that if the Komen Foundation is truly focused on cancer advocacy they would understand it can only hurt their cause to ally with a group involved in such incredibly controversial behavior as Planned Parenthood.
However, regardless of the inciting incident, one hopes that the Komen foundation will realize that Planned Parenthood is a group they should absolutely not get back into bed with.
….”Victim” of cancer? Being victimized generally requires there be a will to do something, doesn’t there? Or have I been a victim of the cold in a non-metaphorical way?
Incidentally, I know several folks who have gone through cancer and do care about your “politics” when the lives of babies are involved.
More on topic: WHOOT! Now if they’ll just stop giving money to ESCR, I’ll be able to buy pink ribbon stuff again!
Huzzah!
emergency fund = more of my tax dollars
[…] linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted … Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation Breaks Partnership with … The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has broken off a partnership through which it […]
I donated to Komen for the Cure for years without knowing of their affiliation with PP. When I found out (via a Catholic blog), I was very distressed. The lesson learned was to look very carefully at charities before reaching for the checkbook. I am glad to find they are dropping their partnership with that infernal organization.
Donna V. – I couldn’t agree with you more. I have also given much more scrutiny to organizations that I choose to give money too. Susan G. Komen is now back on my list of considerations.
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While this is great, I urge caution. I for one will not be giving them money, yet. They may still rejoin with PP, and they also have a long on-again-off-again relationship with embryonic stem cell research, not to mention the salaries of the SGK CEOs. I hope this represents a real change in SGKs life philosophy, but it is still too soon to know.
They also tend to make donations to political candidates. All in all, they are not quite ready for my donation.
I thought Lila Rose did an expose that involved calling dozens of PP offices to schedule a mammogram and was told in every case they could not or did not offer them. What are they calling “breast cancer screenings?”
The Huff Post is speculating that this development has the fingerprints of former GA gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel who recently joined the Komen Foundation as VP. I have no idea, but it is plausible. I know Karen and she is pro-life notwithstanding the lies and distortions spread by sorry folks at GA Right to Life.
The liberal comments at the Susan G Komen Facebook page are quite obscene and vicious over this announcement.
Therese Z-
the manual examination- the sort that is pretty standard at any doctor’s. It’s like a self exam, although if I remember correctly things have to be REALLY dire for a doctor to notice something odd. Even self-exams done regularly often don’t find things until it’s rather late– the earliest symptoms are changes, not something specific. (Yay, generalities. There are cases of women catching it very early, but there are also cases of not finding it until it’s massively advanced, even when the exams are done correctly.)
Well, that is unfortunate, but not surprising. I hope that the Foundation realizes that those commentators are not benefactors, at least as a group. Just angry pro-aborts who consider abortion a sacrament and obscenity literature.
According to this article, Komen has also quietly stopped funding embryonic stem cell research:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2841458/posts
Komen backtracks, now says they WILL fund Planned Parenthood. I thought is odd when they held their International Conference in Cairo and the Egyptians insisted (remember this was during the ‘peace treaty’) that Israel not be allowed to attend and Komen agreed! Israeli hospitals are on the cutting edge of cancer research. Egypt? They are on the cutting edge of cutting Coptic Christian throats.
in fact, PP is highly effective at preventing breast cancer.
Approximately 100% of murdered babies have not contracted breast cancer.
Kill for the cure!
I see that my comment was not useful the other day as I tried to warn everybody to re-read the press report from Komens before they got too excited about this news. The one good thing that came out of this mess, is that for years, we pro-lifers have been trying to wake people up about Komen & their ties with “pp”, but, to no avail. Now, we not only have the proof, but, “pp” has exposed it’s poisonous fangs for all of America to see. The bottom line: READ EVERYTHING CAREFULLY, especially where the devil is involved. +JMJ+