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Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Abortion; Breast Cancer
Article Date: 05 Feb 2012 - 14:00 PST Current ratings for:
Has Komen Shot Itself In The Foot?
Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer charity which until recently had an enviable reputation as being totally impartial and focused purely on saving women's lives, may have caused itself irreparable damage. By announcing a few days ago that it would stop awarding funds to Planned Parenthood, a sexual health organization; it found itself in the middle of an enormous public outcry. Many say this single act might well have been a self-inflicted kiss of death.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. is also a charity, which is known to deliver reproductive health care, sex education and information to millions of women, men and young people globally. Planned Parenthood is pro-choice - it offers abortion advice as part of its service, and believes it is up to the pregnant woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure (Komen) awarded Planned Parenthood substantial sums to carry out breast scans (mammographies), predominantly for women from poorer households. According to Komen in December 2011, its funds which went to Planned Parenthood paid for 139,000 breast exams during that year, as well as over 5,000 mammograms - 117 breast cancer cases were identified.
A few days ago, Komen said it was not going to give Planned Parenthood any more grants. The charity said it was because Planned Parenthood was being investigated by US authorities. However, most people believe the move was political - there is a Komen board member who is pro-life (anti-abortion) - that Komen was forced cut its ties because of Planned Parenthood's pro-choice stance. The new Komen chief is Senior Vice President Haren Handel, a known conservative.
Planned Parenthood made a public appeal, saying that approximately $700,000 in funding it used to get from Komen would need to be raised. The appeal, amazingly, raised over $400,000 in 24 hours. It was clear it would not be long before the $700,000 was reached. Some famous figures came forward, offering personal donations, such as NY City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who pledged $250,000.
Today, news sources say Planned Parenthood has raised $3 million. Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, says this extra money will be used just for breast screening services.
Commenting on national support by over 10,000 donors so far, Cecile Richards said:
"When it broke, it just caught fire. This is an extraordinary
outpouring of support."
Komen risked not only becoming irrelevant for Planned Parenthood's breast health services, but also being known as the charity that succumbs to political pressure, regardless of women's health. Experts clearly stated that Komen's move would make no difference to the number of abortions being performed, but would seriously affect poorer women's access to breast screenings and advice on breast health.
As criticism for Komen's move grew, so did in-fighting within the charity. Eventually, Komen made an announcement which can only be seen as a funding u-turn. It announced that it was reviewing its funding policies, and that most likely Planned Parenthood would be back on its list of grantees.
Bioethicists are now saying that Komen's final change of heart may be too little, too late. Perhaps the only way Komen can have a chance of eventually regaining its pristine image, is to start by getting rid of its leadership and board - for they were the ones who clumsily landed the charity in its present undesirable spotlight. Otherwise, far from being the envy of charitable organizations, it may simply end up being just one of hundreds of charities in the USA asking people for donations.
In 2010, Harris Interactive reported that Komen was the most valuable non-profit brand on the planet.
Background reading, some articles published over the last couple of months:
- "Dropping Planned Parenthood Is Not Political, Says Susan G. Komen For The Cure"
- "Susan G. Komen Starts U-Turn After Planned Parenthood Cut-Off"
- "Pink Bibles Recalled, Linked To Planned Parenthood Funding"
Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
MLA
5 Aug. 2012.
Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.
posted by redplanet on 12 Feb 2012 at 11:34 am
The entire cancer industry cons people - Komen just did it very, very well. They play on women's emotions and the need to "do good". Just like every other disease of the month club out there, they are PR experts.
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posted by Laura J. on 6 Feb 2012 at 4:56 am
Planned Parenthood just "pro-abortion" and "pro-choice?" Uh- how is it that you fail to mention that they are the largest abortion Provider in the country? That seems a fairly relevant fact to mention in this controversy. Implying that they only give abortion advice is comical.
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posted by Eshe on 6 Feb 2012 at 4:45 am
Tom has his facts right!
They will never get a dime from me, and pink has just become my least favorite color...and I will be the Anti-Komen machine...
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posted by Tom on 5 Feb 2012 at 7:22 pm
You might also note that in the furor, most Komen supporters were surprised and disgusted to find out that only 20% of the funds that Komen raises goes to research and only another 5% goes to treatments. For those interested in verifying that go to the komen financial page on their site and download their 990 form and see for yourselves.
People also learned that Komen quietly cut 12 million dollars from cancer stem cell research.
"That means the loss of $3.75 million to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, $4.5 million to the University of Kansas Medical Center, $1 million to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, $1 million to the Society for Women’s Health Research, and $600,000 to Yale University. That’s a loss of nearly $12 million dollars in research money to eradicate breast cancer this year alone."
To verify that Google "Susan G. Komen Foundation Also Stops Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research"
and then we have learned that they have been bullying other organizations.
to verify that Google "Susan G. Komen Foundation Elbows Out Charities Over Use Of The Word 'Cure'
That on top of lying about why they cut Planned Parenthood funding, not once but at least two times and they are only now trying to come clean if you can believe their latest explanation found here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/05/karen-handel-susan-g-komen-decision-defund-planned-parenthood_n_1255948.html
IMHO this latest explanation sounds like spin, they ever go so far as to blame Planned Parenthood for the whole mess. Not one more dime from me will go to them.
Thanks
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posted by Gnarly Erik on 5 Feb 2012 at 6:59 pm
Komen made an incredibly stupid move which instantly turned the organization into one big Pink Elephant.
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posted by USANative on 5 Feb 2012 at 4:42 pm
Under the guidance of Karen Handel and Ari Fleischer, Komen now offers doners pink handguns, pink buckets of KFC chicken, no funding of stem cell research, and NO PROMISE OF FUNDS FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD. Keep the crazy, ultra right republican agenda out of Komen.
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posted by Mary Nissley on 5 Feb 2012 at 4:24 pm
One must ask why Susan G Komen at first chose to stop giving to Planned Parenthood. Could it perhaps be because most of the funds allocated to PP did not end up being used for mammograms, but instead went to other activities, which were not related to cancer research at all? After all, PP is involved in far more than giving free mammograms.
The only reason PP is controversial is because they are pro-abortion, which is antithetical to the foundational world-view of many of SGK's supporters. Is SGK free to choose to give only to cancer research?
The only reason this became a political issue, is because the "pro-choice" lobby pressured politicians to make it a political issue. Suddenly, the "pro-choice" political side is "anti-choice", when it comes to SGK's freedom of choice to allocate funds as they see most effective to their cause.
One must now ask, is there indeed freedom of choice, if a foundation dedicated to finding a cure for cancer is pressured by US Senators to give some of their funds toward a controversial activity NOT related to their declared cause?
Why is there no outcry among liberals concerning the use of cancer research funds for purposes not declared to the contributors? Why don't liberals require PP to show proof that all cancer-research grants must be used solely for that purpose?
Otherwise, liberals just prove to the rest of us what we have suspected for a long time. They really are NOT about freedom or choice.
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posted by Philip Gerstle on 5 Feb 2012 at 3:42 pm
Komen did not shoot themselves in the foot; they shot themselves between the eyes. A foot injury is a painful inconvenience. A bullet in the head is usually fatal; if one should survives it commonly with impairment.
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