Background via NYT:
When the nation’s largest breast cancer advocacy organization considered in October cutting off most of its financial support to the nation’s largest abortion provider, the breast cancer group was hoping for a quiet end to an increasingly controversial partnership.
Instead, the organization, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, is now engulfed in a controversy that threatens to undermine one of the most successful advocacy campaigns. The foundation’s decision to eliminate most of its grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening caused a cascade of criticism from prominent women’s groups, politicians and public health advocates and a similarly strong outpouring of support from conservative women and religious groups that oppose abortion.
Now, leaders of both the Komen foundation and Planned Parenthood are accusing each other of bad faith and actions that undermine women. And two organizations dedicated to detecting and curing breast cancer have found themselves on opposite sides of the nation’s divisive debate over abortion.
Then Nancy Brinker, the charity’s founder and chief executive officer posted a video on YouTube, explaining the decision. (Video and description below)
Susan G. Komen has spent 30 years providing real help to low-income, uninsured and underinsured women, and recent changes to Komen's granting policies only reinforce our commitment. Recent reports about those policies aren't getting it right. See the real story from SGK Founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker in this "Straight Talk" video.
More from The Politico:
“We will never bow down to political pressure,” Brinker said. “The scurrilous accusations being hurled at this organization are profoundly hurtful to so many of us who put our heart, soul and lives into this organization. But more importantly, they are a dangerous distraction from the work that still remains to be done in ridding the world of breast cancer.”
JWF did a little bit of browsing through Planned Parenthood's website:
A quick visit to their website shows quick links to topics such as Abortion, Birth Control, Morning After Pill and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The only mention in regards to breast cancer is their front page screed about Komen pulling their funding. So I decided to do a deep dive. Surely there is something there since they are screaming so loudly about how many mammograms they do. Under the general health tab I found this.
General health care services vary by location. They may include
- anemia testing
- cholesterol screening
- diabetes screening
- physical exams, including for employment and sports
- flu vaccines
- help with quitting smoking
- high blood pressure screening
- tetanus vaccines
- thyroid screening
Finally, under the Women’s Health tab, I found a reference to breast cancer along with this information.
Planned Parenthood doctors and nurses teach patients about breast care, connect patients to resources to help them get vital biopsies, ultrasounds, and mammograms, and follow up to make sure patients are cared for with the attention they need and deserve.
Reading that I would come to the conclusion that Planned Parenthood doesn’t actually do the screenings but rather refer you to someone who will. In other words, breast cancer screenings were never high on their list of things to do.
This knee jerk reaction on the part of liberals over Planned Parenthood after a while becomes like the little boy who cried wolf.
Worth noting, then simply moving right along.....
[Update] Those darn mischievous pro-abortion activists hacked into the Komen for the Cure website to change headline the slogan "Help us run over poor women on our way to the bank."
Isn't hacking a crime? Why yes, it is.
.