Critical update! Susan G Komen clarifies policy to exlude organization found guilty of criminal offense to be exluded from funding. They will now continue funding critical services to at risk women through Planned Parenthood. I hope they can recover from the media damage they inflicted upon themselves.
I take this story very personally. My mother is a breast cancer survivor, both my grandmothers died from breast cancer. I am at high risk for carrying a specific breast cancer gene. I use to be a huge supporter of the Susan G. Kohmen Foundation. That support has ended as of today. Apparently their leadership has made a choice to cut off the most at risk women who require low cost health care from their funding.
Furor Erupts Over Susan G. Komen Halt Of Grants To Planned Parenthood
The reaction has been intense this evening to the news from The Associated Press that “the nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates.”
Much of it is highly critical of the charity, such as this message from Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif.:
“Komen’s decision hurts women — it puts politics before women’s health. @komenforthecure should be ashamed.”
Or this tweet from political satirist and Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead:
“I am crying in a cab at this Komen decision. Tomorrow we will rally. Who is in this fight with me! You can no longer sit idly by.”
The AP story posted on NPR.org has nearly 400 comments as of this moment. The most recommended at this time:
“I will be halting my support for Komen and I will be telling them why.
This is just silly.” [From “Fly Butterfly.”]According to the AP, the Komen foundation says it has stopped sending money to Planned Parenthood affiliates — who used the funding to provide breast cancer screening and education programs to women — because of an inquiry initiated by Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., into whether Planned Parenthood has used public money to provide abortions. The Komen foundation’s position is that it does not give grants to organizations that are under investigation. It gave about $680,000 to Planned Parenthood affiliates last year and $580,000 the year before, according to the AP. Planned Parenthood says Komen grants have paid for about 170,000 breast exams in the past five years.
This is part of the letter that Planned Parenthood has sent to all its members today.
This is for all the anti-choice, anti-women people out there.
Listen up.
You can spend every minute of every day trying to force the rest of us to live by your ideology. You can go after federal funds for health care and pressure private organizations like the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to stop funding breast cancer screenings for poor women. You can try to make it impossible to get birth control.
But you know what you can’t do? You can’t win. You can’t break us. Planned Parenthood isn’t just a family of organizations. It’s a movement. It’s women and men of all ages who believe that health care — including reproductive health care — is a basic human right. We are millions strong. We are everywhere. We act, we give, and we do whatever it takes to make sure that Planned Parenthood is there for the women, men, and teens who rely on them.
Know this: When you go after Planned Parenthood and the people they serve, you go after ME. I stand with Planned Parenthood. I stand with them against anyone who wants to stop women from receiving the health care they need. I stand with them today, tomorrow, and for as long as I need to.
let me add, I am home suffering with the flu, i think my blood boiled so much when I heard this story my fever actually broke.
I am with you on this one, Elena. The war on Planned Parenthood has gone too far.
When the Berlin Wall fell, I asked my friends who the new enemy would be. Little did I know it would be PP. I have never seen such hoopla over an organization that simply helps people have control over their own health and reproductive rights.
I only have x amount of money to give to charitable organizations. It will break my heart to have to stop giving to my Catholic Indian School out in the Dakotass, but I feel this is as important: To stop zealots who bully others over reproductive issues.
Why do people want government out of their business and yet want to intrude in other people’s reproduction? I fail to understand it.
When I got married, and I haven’t thought of this in years, we had to have pre-maritial counselling. (you know, those liberal Presybeterians) The one thing I remember the minister stressing as a moral imperative was to control pregancy and not to have more children than we would afford or take care of. TRANSLATION- use birth control.
or even better Moon “plan your parenthood”!
What really got me was all the hype through the years from Komen on how providing funding to PP for breast cancer screening helped the vunerable population of the low income/poverty. Their excuse they do not give funds to organizations under investigation is pure BS because as the grant maker, they can ask for the “accounting to the temple” down to the last penny. They are done.
@Ray
Done in my eyes, that’s for sure. Furthermore, I simply don’t believe the excuses they are now giving out.
Women in Northern VA will be ok. They can go to DC or Maryland. I guess people will do what they have to do.
I’m at a loss to understand the logic.
Komen is working to find a cure for breast cancer, yet they won’t support screening that helps finding the cancer at early stages. Does that make any sense?
I have to say that I’ve never given to Komen; always seemed too big and too pushy compared to other organizations fighting cancer.
Planned Parenthood has had a spike in donations since the Komen decision. Talk about unintended consequences for those who wish to control women. I’ll never give a dime to Komen’s foundation until this decision is reversed and the VP, Karen Handel, booted.
@Moon-howler
“When I got married, and I haven’t thought of this in years, we had to have pre-maritial counselling. (you know, those liberal Presybeterians) The one thing I remember the minister stressing as a moral imperative was to control pregancy and not to have more children than we would afford or take care of. TRANSLATION- use birth control.”
Excellent point! I had to do the pre-marital counselling too before I got married the first time. My liberal Presbyeterian preacher relayed the same sort of message to us.
@Lafayette, and the advice still is solid advice, even today.
you can donate directly to breast cancer screening services on the PP website!
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/
Netflix lost $7.9 million in 3 months when they made a decision that showed they really didn’t know their customer base — or care about it.
How much has Komen lost in the past 3 days from not knowing or caring about their donor base?
Amb. Brinker was on msnbc equivocating to beat the band trying to say it had nothing to do with politics, the decision was all about measuring effectiveness, blah blah blah. Her eyes were darting around while she was trying to hold them steady so you know what that means.
Yup, Cindy, good analogy. New coke all over again also.
This time the Empire will fight back. I think that anti choice folks have our attention and they have awakened a sleeping giant.
excellent point Cindy@Cindy B
I have a classmate who is a breast cancer survivor. She said she stopped donating when she found the execs made 400 grand in salary.
I am 100% with you on this Elena. Not another dime from me for Komen. Planned Parenthood does great work. Komen is run by right wing extremists like Bob Marshall. From now on my money goes directly to Planned Parenthood.
Cheer Blue Moon!
Amen Blue Moon!
New York Daily News:
Mayor Bloomberg plans to give Planned Parenthood $250,000 to make up for money it lost when a breast cancer group cut its funding.
“Politics have no place in health care,” Bloomberg said in a statement on Thursday. “Breast cancer screening saves lives and hundreds of thousands of women rely on Planned Parenthood for access to care. We should be helping women access that care, not placing barriers in their way.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/bloomberg-donate-250k-planned-parenthood-article-1.1016157#ixzz1lHAz5yUq
Wow, great find Moon!
Outcry against Susan G Kohman for ending relationship with Planned Parenthood gets even more fierce.
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/us/komen-foundation-urged-to-restore-planned-parenthood-funds.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
5 myths about Planned Parenthood
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-planned-parenthood/2011/04/14/AFogj1iD_story.html?hpid=z2
It really is time for the culture warriors to stop lying and also time for chumps to stop believing the lies.
Editorial in NY Times:
A Painful Betrayal
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opinion/a-painful-betrayal.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211
my mom had a pink ribbon decal put on her new car. she is pretty irritated right now. She is a huge pro choice advocate.
Their donations have gone up quite a bit. (So have PP for that matter).
Trying desperately not to laugh at two “women’s” organizations opening fire on each other.
It’s difficult….very difficult.
I am with Cindy. I fail to see the humor also. Actually, Komen is losing money because all the pro-choice people are pulling out. Unfortunately, women’s health issues shouldn’t be political or laughing matters. I will also add that I don’t really see them as women’s issues. As far as Komen goes, men have mothers, sisters, wives, daughters. As far as PP goes, last I heard, parthenogensis doesn’t occur in humans. Men use planned parenthood services also for contraception and STD treatment.
What you’re watching is self-immolation, Slow. I don’t see the humor in it.
Komen has reversed its decision. Too little too late. I would rather just donate to Planned Parenthood from here on out. Frankly, I don’t trust Komen now.
We are now fighting for freaking birth control. This is absurd.
the year 2012 and we have to battle for birth control. Someone or something has too much control over others.
You Guys have said it all so I just want to be counted in the list who thinks Komen is despicable listening to the politicians who want to make an anti-abortion point.
Welcome back, Bear. Don’t stay a stranger so long next time. Thanks for weighing in.
There’s a second fallout. The Komen symbol on all those products. Who wants to buy them now? It’s like using Shrek to fight childhood obesity and sell Hostess Twinkies at the same time. There had to have been pressure from Komen’s cause marketing partnerships to reverse their decision as well.
We’ve heard time and again on this blog about the many services Planned Parenthood provides, and how abortion is only a very small part of what they do for women, and especially the very poor and underserved. Fair enough. But on the flip side, we’re talking about a half-million dollars that Komen is absolutely under no obligation, as a private organization, to provide to PP. So for a mere half million, many of you earlier today would have liked to see Komen essentially bankrupted in its mission to find a cure for breast cancer, just because someone in that organization isn’t in lockstep with a pro-choice agenda. There’s a lot of hypocrisy on both sides of this non-issue.
No one said everyone has to be pro choice. What on earth does that have to do with Planned Parenthood?
Komen can give to whomever it wants. However, there are consequences. They made a real bad business decision.
@Moon-howler “What on earth does that have to do with Planned Parenthood?”
Well, for instance, you said this on #12: “This time the Empire will fight back. I think that anti choice folks have our attention and they have awakened a sleeping giant.”
And then there’s the crux of the controversy, from the WaPo: “The initial decision to change its funding criteria, resulting in Planned Parenthood getting cut off, thrust it into the midst of the national abortion debate.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/komen-revises-funding-policy/2012/02/03/gIQAVRa3mQ_story.html
But of course I could just be making all that up.
Emma,
Where did you get the idea that we wanted Komen to go bankrupt?
The point Moon was making that people are getting sick and tired of having choice be a political football. Komen was always viewed as a non partisan organization, focused soley on breast cancer education, early detection, treatment.
They created a policy not unlike what the PW Chamber of Commerce tried pusing through the state legislature that would have resulted in the loss of ONE specific planning commissioner, Kim Hosen. Komen worded their new guidelines to ensure that PP would be defunded, that is no coincidence.
Let me ask you Emma, in two years, what has dramatically changed in the services that PP provides to low income women. Komen has been a target for YEARS from the zealot anti choice people. Your comments should be directed at why these groups care more about the 3% of abortions PP provides than the LIVING womens lives they save through cancer screening.
@Emma
Ah the weasel word games begins. As I look through the agenda on the table at the GA in Richmond this year, I don’t really think I need to explain all that much.
Obviously, despite the fact that we live in the year 2012, a small but vocal minority has puffed up to bully and intimidate those who support not just abortion rights but also contraception and those organizations who provide contraception to people who cannot necessarily afford to go other routes. Planned Parenthood is one of those organizations.
It isn’t accidental that Komen targetted PP. It isn’t accidental that it is under investigation. Yes, a sleeping giant has been awakened. That giant is all the people who lapsed into complacency and allowed those with a talaban-like agenda to take power.
I dislike people having to have abortions. I dislike unintended pregnancy. I dislike busy bodies who want to make deeply personal decisions for others. Next question…..
I would add a question Moon.
Why did this non profit foundation need to get permission from the Catholic Church to partner with PP?
I do not know. @ Elena
Other than for their own flock, they have no authority. No one outside the church cares what they think. JFK was right.
Didn’t JFK have to convince voters that he was not given his marching orders by the Pope?
@Elena “Emma,
Where did you get the idea that we wanted Komen to go bankrupt?”
From the title of this thread: “Susan G Kohmen Organization Will Never Recieve Another Dime From Me” and from the media-incited outcry in many other places to try to strip donations from an organization doing marvelous things for women’s health. So let both sides just gouge each other’s eyes out. And, as a famous sage said, then both will be blind. That was my point.
@Emma, the organization was no longer going to do marvelous things, because of political reasons. Not too smart if you want to keep those donations coming in. Netlfix also was a great company until it did something really stupid. It still hasn’t recovered. It sounds like capitalism to me.
Those who please us get our money.
Excuse me Emma, we must be in alternate realities. Komen began this entire fiasco, NOT Planned Parenthood. What did they think the response would be? Silence from “the sheep”. No, women are tired of being crapped on by these far right zealots who want to bully people into believing that contraception is anti G-d along with abortion.
KOMEN is wholly responsible for this reaction, were it NOT for their decision, they never would have found themselves in this firestorm. You are blaming the person who got “hit” for “defending” themselves? Really?
I control where my charitable donations go JUST like I control my reproductive future!
Nice sledgehammer approach, Moon and Elena. Point taken. Too bad you ignored mine.
When my rights are trampled as badly as they have been trampled during the past year and most recently in Richmond, you are doggone right I am holding a sledgehammer. Obviously diplomacy no longer works.
There is an all out war on women’s reproductive rights. You expect us to pussy foot and use good manners? I actually thought *I* WAS being polite.
Komen drew a line in the sand and then tried to cover up their true motive. Not such a good idea.
“You expect us to pussy foot and use good manners?”
Obviously, from the way you responded to me in this thread, not anymore.
what was your point Emma? That komen foundation made a very calculated choice and there are consequences to those choices. The trust they had for women like me and a thousands of others has been lost. I did NOT search this out, Komen was the one that brought it to the public.
@Emma,
I am being very polite actually. Less than 5% of Planned Parenthood services are abortion related.
It is safe to say that 95% of PP’s business is about sexual wellness and not getting pregnant. The absurdity is that Americans are even having a discussion about contraception in 2012.
What kinds of idiots want to stop abortion by making contraception less available?
Unfortunately, in today’s political climate, it appears that people who are ‘pro-choice’ are also those who want available contraception, even though in most cases they would want abortion rights scaled back. How realistic isd that?
Frankly, it is just tiresome.
According to Wash Post, corporate sponsors like Honest Tea are rethinking their six-figure cause marketing relationships with Komen — this is the second wave.
The third wave is how much money Komen will pay Ogilvy in crisis management — more money that won’t go to research.
Read the Post article “Susan G. Komen Foundation Takes Steps to Rebuild Trust After PR Fiasco”–fourth wave is this becomes a case study of what not to do, taught in communications classes for the next 10 years.
4th wave–the netflix and new coke syndrome. Horrible marketing mistakes are like horrible PR mistakes. Did I leave out the VA GOP loyalty oath?
I don’t think we’re in any danger of seeing Planned Parenthood logos all over our kids’ Yoplait cups anytime soon.
Cindy,
It is a real shame that Komen chose to cave to the extreme right. What did you think about that 2009 letter I found from Komen lauding the wonderful things that PP does for breast cancer screening!
I didn’t read the letter but like everyone else, the shift from 2009 is simply part of the polarization that is going on everywhere today, and the branding that encourages it. You are part of the brand, or you are attacking the brand. You are pink, or you are not pink.