There was a bipartisan uproar Thursday, Feb. 2, when the Susan G. Komen for the Cure – seemingly in conjunction with the same conservative Religious Right that attacks LGBT people – cut off funding of Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening program for low-income women, including lesbians, bisexual and transgender women. (See Dr. Susan Love’s piece in Huffington Post Gay about lesbians and breast cancer. Go to the Mautner Project for more info on lesbian health. )
After 24 hours of intense backlash, including from New York Mayor Bloomberg who offered up to $250,000 in matching funds for Planned Parenthood, Komen met Friday morning issued this statement, apologizing and reversing their decision:
Komen for the Cure just released the following statement from Nancy Brinker and the Susan G. Komen Board of Directors:
We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.
The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.
Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.
It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women. We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.
Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work. We ask for the public’s understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve.
We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.
John Aravosis at AMERICAblog notes that Komen only approves funds for an existing grant – but not necessarily for a Planned Parenthood grant in hand but not approved for next year. Aravosis:
The only way that Komen can get out of this mess is by approving Planned Parenthood’s grant now. Komen has the application, they killed it for political reasons, and they got caught. And then to add insult to injury, Brinker concocted a new story last night.
If Komen really wants to do penance, they’ll approve PPFA’s grant now.
Watch MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell’s uncomfortable interview with Brinker:
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And here’s how Senators Boxer and Murray reacted:
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Part of the shock and backlash came from the revelation that Komen’s leadership included a woman with a clear anti-choice agenda. People for the American Way put out this information, about the so-called “congressional investigation” that supposedly prompted the de-funding:
- Congressional Republicans being the Far Right’s willing foot soldiers in its war on women, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) launched an inquiry to determine whether Planned Parenthood uses public money to fund abortions. Planned Parenthood receives federal money but cannot use it to provide abortions. The malicious and farcical inquiry is based on the ongoing smear campaign against Planned Parenthood by Religious Right activists, but Komen is using this as its excuse to stop funding Planned Parenthood’s critical work — citing a new policy about not supporting organizations under congressional investigation.
- The right-wing pressure leading to Komen’s decision also came from within the organization. Last year, Komen hired as its new vice president of public policy Karen Handel, an anti-choice former secretary of state and Republican candidate for governor in Georgia. During her failed primary bid, Handel vowed to cut off any state-allocated funds to Planned Parenthood and was one of Sarah Palin’s infamous “Mama Grizzly” endorsed candidates. Indeed, the bio on Handel’s Twitter account reads “Lifelong Conservative Republican formerly Georgia’s first Republican Secretary of State,” giving an indication of her priorities.
- It’s now being reported that Komen’s top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board’s decision to cut off Planned Parenthood in December.
- In another apparent nod to anti-choice activists, Komen has also quietly stopped funding potentially life-saving stem cell research, showing that its mission to find “a cure” takes a back seat to its desire to please social conservatives.
- Komen’s board includes Jane Abraham, the General Chairman of the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List (SBA). SBA constantly spreads false information about federal government funding of abortion and public health and medical evidence surrounding safe abortion care. Abrams is also closely tied with the Nurturing Network, which exists for the sole purpose of convincing women that abortions cause a range of unrelated health problems, like promoting the mythical link between abortions and breast cancer. Jodi Jacobson at RH Reality Check rightly asks, “Can you trust a breast cancer organization whose staff and board members lie about breast cancer?”
PFAW also suggest that you:
Support a breast cancer organization that puts women’s health ahead of politics. Organizations like Army of Women, Breast Cancer Action and the National Breast Cancer Foundation are good alternatives to the now-politicized Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Support Planned Parenthood AND other local women’s clinics in your area.
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