Susan G. Komen backs down

In an abrupt about-face, the Susan G. Komen Foundation decided to once again provide grants to Planned Parenthood for services related to breast cancer screenings and treatment. Needless to say, pro-life activists are up in arms about having defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. But the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the pro-abortion community was intense, and having 26 Democratic Senators send a letter to SGK condemning the move was probably enough to worry the breast cancer research giant into fearing a federal backlash. (By the way, it’s hardly surprising that both Maryland Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin signed the letter.)

Ironically, the amount in question (about $680,000) was matched by several large donors to Planned Parenthood, so they would have been all right financially anyway. Planned Parenthood is a $1 billion-plus business, so in all honesty the SGK grant was a proverbial drop in the bucket to them – yet the screaming which ensued after SGK dropped its grant was enough to bring the abortion issue back to the forefront for a time. It’s sad because SGK does a lot of good but the comparatively tiny amount at stake will likely result in a net loss for that worthwhile organization (because donors will be turned off by the fact they donate to an abortion mill) and they’ll still be on the hook for the $680,000 or so. Meanwhile, I doubt Planned Parenthood is going to return any of the donations they received under what turned out to be somewhat false pretenses.

There’s also another difference between the two that’s worth pointing out. Insofar as I could tell, SGK either receives no or very little federal funding – the vast majority of their revenue comes from donations and the Race for the Cure. On the other hand, Planned Parenthood gets millions of federal dollars each year and uses the money freed up by the funding to perform over 300,000 abortions a year. One promotes a culture of life and hope, the other a culture of death and “convenience.” If they simply stuck to other birth control methods, perhaps Planned Parenthood would be a less controversial organization, but their roots go back to the dark aspect of eugenics and the molding of society as expressed by founder Margaret Sanger.

I suppose the only shock I had wasn’t the fact Komen backed down, but just that they did so quickly.

2 thoughts on “Susan G. Komen backs down”

  1. As a libertarian, I believe abortion is an individual decision. (Though, as an aside, I also believe that it should not be federally funded.) In light of the fact that PP is the largest provider of abortions in the US, it is unfortunate that the liberal movement in the US has been able to twist the original SGK decision as some covert conservative anti-abortion maneuver .

    SGK is a privately funded organization who made the decision to fund “higher impact programs” such as entities that actually do mammograms, something PP does not provide. PP simply does breast palpation to screen for breast cancer. This is something any individual, nurse, mid-level provider, physician, etc can and does do during an exam. It’s really the mammogram that is the life-saving test. PP does the screening and then refers the individual to another provider for the mammogram. Personally, I think it would have been a better use of their funds and was well within their right to make that decision.

    While I am not anti-abortion, I do have some basic issues with PP. Since they receive about 45% of their funding, directly or indirectly, from the government, this means that the government is funding abortions, something I believe they have no business getting into. (Just as I believe the government has no business in healthcare in general.)

    PP is the love child of Margaret Sanger, who though she is viewed as a champion of reproductive rights, was a racist and eugenicist. You can make the argument that an organization is not its founder, but really, aren’t the ideals and values of a founding father (mother) interwoven into an organization’s foundation?

    Having been no friend of PP before this finely crafted media assault on SGK, I now have absolutely no respect for them or their cause. Unfortunately, by caving to the pressure and flip-flopping, SGK has become PP’s “bitch”. What a horrific precedent has been set by these events. It saddens me that one of the most recognizable US charitable organizations is willing to compromise its mission and greater potential benefits to appease the liberal base.

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