Cancer charity restores grant to Planned Parenthood
Organization retreats after public outcry
In less than a week, a major breast cancer charity accused of bowing to political pressure appears instead to have bowed to public pressure.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the charity responsible for the wildly successful pink ribbon campaign, has reversed its decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood after outrage erupted from donors and supporters.
“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” said Komen CEO Nancy G. Brinker in a statement Friday. “We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.”
Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood, says the organization is grateful that Komen has reversed its decision.
“The outpouring of support for women in need of life-saving breast cancer screening this week has been astonishing and is a testament to our nation’s compassion and sincerity,” she said in a statement.
The denial of the $700,000 grant, which helps fund breast exams, was made public on Tuesday. Planned Parenthood alleged that Komen’s decision to cancel funding was driven by pressure from anti-abortion groups.
Helping women obtain abortions makes up 3 per cent of Planned Parenthood’s medical services, according to the organization’s 200910 report, and contraception services make up 33.5 per cent. Cancer screening and prevention account for 14.5 per cent of its services.
The Komen grant goes into providing breast exams — nearly 170,000 have been done as a result of that funding in the past five years, according to Planned Parenthood, out of a total of four million breast exams.
Cancer charity officials maintain the cut was the result of a new rule that bans grants to any organization under investigation. The rule has now been amended to specify that such investigations “must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”
Planned Parenthood is currently being investigated by Florida Republican Congressman Cliff Stearns over whether it is using federal funds to supply abortions — which is illegal in the U.S.
The organization has also come under fire from the Republican presidential hopefuls, who have all pledged to cut the $80 million federal grant Planned Parenthood receives.
On the other side, 26 U.S. senators — one independent, the rest Democrats — wrote a letter calling on Komen to reconsider, warning of the danger of politicizing women’s health.
“It would be tragic if any woman — let alone thousands of women — lost access to these potentially lifesaving screenings because of a politically motivated attack,” the sena- tors wrote.
Since Komen announced its plans to cut funding earlier this week, Planned Parenthood has raised almost $3 million for the breast cancer program from about 10,000 donors. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also pledged to personally give a $250,000 matching donation to Planned Parenthood, saying: “Politics have no place in health care.”
Komen’s top public health official, Mollie Williams, quit in December in protest over the funding cut decision, reported the Atlantic.
Williams did not comment directly on her departure but said: “I have dedicated my career to fighting for the rights of the marginalized and underserved . . . And I believe it would be a mistake for any organization to bow to political pressure and compromise its mission.”