Susan G. Komen Stops Funding for Planned Parenthood: Who Does the Decision Hurt Most?
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The Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a leading breast cancer charity, has announced that it will no longer provide funding to Planned Parenthood for preventive check-ups. As Elizabeth Troupeau reported:
When Susan G. Komen announced Tuesday afternoon that she was withdrawing her breast cancer screening grants from Planned Parenthood, the reaction from critics was swift and furious.
The move has been called, in some of the nicest reviews: “repugnant, “anti-women,” And one “cowardice. The president of Planned Parenthood said she could not understand how the leading national breast cancer charity ‘could have bowed to this kind of bullying’, alleging that funding was cut due to the lobbying from anti-abortion groups Planned Parenthood offers a wide range of reproductive health services, but its work focuses on pro-choice decision-making and sex education.
Petitions were also launched which called for the restoration of the partnership between Komen and Planned Parenthood. Co-creator of the daily show Lizz Winstead tweeted, “I’m crying in a cab at this decision Komen. Tomorrow we will rally together. Who is in this fight with me! You can no longer sit idly by.
Komen’s reasoning for the funding is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation by Congress. But critics believe internal changes and lobbying by anti-abortion groups may also have played a role in the decision. As Sarah Kliff Explain :
Komen said he couldn’t continue funding Planned Parenthood because it passed new guidelines that prevent it from funding organizations under investigation by Congress. The House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee announcement in the fall, a survey of funding for Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood has been at the center of many heated political battles in recent times. Most focus on whether the group, as an abortion provider, should receive government funding for other services it provides, such as providing contraceptives and preventive screening.
So far, plans to cut funds for Planned Parenthood in government have been stalled. The Senate controlled by Democrats and President Obama, for example, stood on the way attempts by House Republicans to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Likewise, when a handful of states passed laws that would have prohibited abortion providers (like Planned Parenthood) from receiving federal dollars through Medicaid, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services intervened. The agency has warned states that they could lose all of their Medicaid funding if they implemented such a policy. These defensive measures enabled Planned Parenthood to resist various political attacks.
In some ways, the Komen decision is not particularly surprising. The group was under pressure anti-abortion groups for not funding Planned Parenthood. He also hired a vice president last year who had previously recommended for funding the group in his run for governor of Georgia. With a congressional investigation underway, Komen withdrew his support. And when private institutions decide to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, there’s little Democrats can do. The only possible support here might be pressure from Planned Parenthood supporters pushing in the opposite direction.
Many have decried Komen’s decision, and some have questioned whether it would pay a higher price than Planned Parenthood. Like Melinda Henneberger reported:
When the Susan G. Komen Foundation, who funds research into breast cancer, a disease I had 10 and 9 years ago, started threatening small nonprofits and claiming exclusive rights to the phrase “for the cure” – as in “Komen Race for the Cure” – I was healed from thinking very hard about their outfit.
Pro-choice women across the country are more than furious that Komen has dropped her funding for breast exams through Planned Parenthood. It does so, the group says, because new rules prevent Komen from donating to any group under government investigation. And Congress is investigating the use of federal funds by Planned Parenthood – in particular, whether it complies with the Hyde Amendment against the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.
I do not share their sense of betrayal since Komen seemed to me for a time to be run like any other large company.
I have a question, though: Was Komen planning to donate this money to another organization or community clinics that would do the exams?
In the end, they might not have to worry about what they do with the extra money. Planned Parenthood, which received about $ 680,000 from Komen last year, according to the Associated Press, has already raised $ 250,000 on news of Komen’s decision. And he will probably end up recouping his losses quickly.
In fact, I wonder if this isn’t the liberal equivalent of Newt Gingrich getting caught by CNN debate moderator John King – an attack, in other words, that ends up helping the attacked.
More The Washington Post
Should Komen have funded Planned Parenthood in the first place?
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