Patch Blog: Komen Foundation Relents, But Planned Parenthood Isn't Safe Yet

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation reversed itself Friday and announced that it “will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants.” 

SGK stated that it will amend its funding criteria to make clear that a group under investigation will be disqualified from consideration for receiving grants only if the probe is “criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”

After announcing on January 31, 2012 that SGK considered the Planned Parenthood Breast Health Fund to be ineligible to receive future grants, SGK was met with a firestorm of criticism and outrage on a national level.  Even local SGK affiliates decried the announcement and many, in open and vocal revolt, pledged to continue to financially support the Fund.

By late Thursday night, the SGK Board convened a special meeting to chart its course.  Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Nancy G. Brinker, the Founder and CEO of SGK, made an attempt at damage control through a video on YouTube.  As I write this, that video has been viewed over 111,000 times and the dislikes outnumber the likes 6,162 to 1,318.  There are over 5,000 written comments.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4oOh6JhayA.

In the meantime, in the last three days the Planned Parenthood Breast Health Fund has received more than $3 million in contributions from thousands of donors across the country in an outpouring of public support.

But given the determination of those in SGK who oppose Planned Parenthood and reproductive freedom, it is foreseeable that SGK will look for some other reason to deny funding in the future. Already SGK has argued that because Planned Parenthood does not directly provide mammography that SGK may not approve funding of pass-through grants.

This, too, is merely a ruse to shield SGK from admitting that the true reason for denying funding is because of an ideological opposition to reproductive freedom. Planned Parenthood, like most other doctors’ and health clinics, cannot afford to purchase and operate mammography equipment.  In addition to being very expensive, mammography equipment requires substantial space and requires trained technicians to operate.  These costs drive up overhead that most doctors and health facilities cannot afford.  So, like any other primary health care provider, if a clinical breast exam reveals a possible problem, the patient is referred to a lab which performs mammograms.

SGK has become politicized and has at its helm those who are driven by an ideology that has nothing to do with SGK’s professed mission of finding a cure for breast cancer.  Donors have a right to know this so that their dollars can be given to those charitable organizations with which they agree.