Health & Fitness
Planned Parenthood Loses More Funding
Susan G. Komen for rthe Cure, broke off its partnership with Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Since 2005 Komen had provided over $680,000.00 for PPFA to provide breast cancer screening.
Depending where you fall on the pro-choice vs anti-abortion political spectrum, this will be seen as very bad news or just the opposite. From what is available in public reporting, the organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure, (of breast cancer), has announced it will no longer provide breast cancer screening funds to Planned Parenthood. This after Planned Parenthood’s funding was cut by the US Congress leaves the beleaguered agency rushing around to secure funding for the cancer screenings.
From 2005 onward, Komen and PP have had a partnership by which Komen provided upwards of $680,000.00 to various Planned Parenthood affiliates around the country, especially in the west and southwestern states.
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Anti-abortion forces had been pressuring Komen to stop the funding to Planned Parenthood due to their abortion services. The anti-abortion groups also claim that PP was using Federal grant money to finance abortions. This led Rep. Cliff Stearns, (R-FL) to initiate a congressional investigation of PP, which has not yet made any progress.
Thus, Komen’s decision not to continue to fund breast cancer screenings through PP is because it was “under investigation. “ According to the Chicago Sun-Times’ David Crary’s February 1st report, newly adopted criteria, (of the Komen Board), bars grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. (For more from this source: http://tiny.cc/6pv00 )
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No one thus far has raised the question as to why the new policy was presented to the Board, and whether there are factions on the Komen Board who are sympathetic to the anti-abortion cause. However, spokespersons for Komen state that the pressure by abortion foes had not been a factor in their decision.
Once more, Planned Parenthood is under the gun, loosing important funding sources for its main mission of preventative health care for women. This means that less and less supportive environments for women to make choices about their own bodies and health will be available. Abortion is still legal in the USA. This is the time to help Planned Parenthood in its important efforts providing safe medical abortions and information on contraception and other matters important to women.
