| Breaking from all over: The Susan G. Komen Foundation has announced that it will cut off all funding for breast cancer screenings to Planned Parenthood.
Or, to be more specific, they conveniently just adopted a new policy 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.
You know what Planned Parenthood is. It's the group with chapters all across the country that provides health care to women and men in such vital areas as family planning and cancer screening. In so doing, Planned Parenthood has probably done more to reduce abortions than any other single organization.
And SGK? The behemoth plastering every product and event it can get its hands on with pink, and spending over a million dollars a year bullying any other organization that even comes close to its "For the Cure" trademark.
Planned Parenthood received $680,000 in 2011 and $580,000 in 2010 from Komen for breast-cancer screening and related services. Nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams were supported by Komen grants.
This is a new low. While they claim they are trying to protect the purity of their funding, it seems more likely that they're trying to protect themselves against association with the anti-choice, anti-sex attacks leveled against Planned Parenthood.
The Susan G. Komen message boards are being flooded with comments from women protesting this betrayal of women's health concerns. I encourage you to add your voice.
There are also "Boycott Susan G. Komen" groups popping up on Facebook, and here's where I suggest caution. If you read the group descriptions, at least one of these groups is an anti-choice cause basing its attacks on the fact that SGK was giving money to Planned Parenthood. The group to join is the one I just linked to, not the Boycott Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, which is the anti-choice group.
So today would be a good day to join the Facebook group, let them know how seriously you take this attack on choice and women's health, and contribute to Planned Parenthood's Breast Health Emergency Fund. |
