Earlier this week, the Susan G. Komen Foundation announced it would no longer be providing funding for organizations under investigation by governmental agencies. Thanks to this new policy, grants to Planned Parenthood (which totaled $680,000 last year) would cease. Planned Parenthood immediately released a statement calling the decision “deeply disturbing and disappointing” and within the same press release used the news as a fundraising opportunity (it worked – they’ve raised more than $400,000).
The left immediately went into spin mode, claiming the funds were used for breast screenings and without Komen’s grants, women’s health would be jeopardized. The funds, they claim, went only towards what they were granted to cover: breast screening and education. Remember the part about Planned Parenthood being under congressional investigation? In part, it’s due to charges over misappropriation of funds. Life News goes into detail on the charges:
A congressional committee has taken the first steps in investigating the Planned Parenthood abortion business over abuses ranging from financial disparities to its compliance with federal regulations on taxpayer funding to concerns that it is covering up cases of sex trafficking.
While debates over Planned Parenthood’s federal funding were taking place, the organization claimed that without governmental grants, women would no longer have access to “basic family planning, mammograms…” Problem is: Planned Parenthood doesn’t provide mammograms. Or advanced breast screenings. The only breast health services Planned Parenthood provides women is teaching them how to do a self-exam at home, and performing that same exam for them in the office. If any abnormality is detected, Planned Parenthood immediately refers their patient elsewhere, as they are unable to provide medical care outside of what a woman could do at home with a basic fact sheet.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation was founded by Nancy Brinker, who named the Foundation in honor of her sister who died of breast cancer. The Foundation “works to end breast cancer in the U.S. and throughout the world through ground-breaking research, community health outreach, advocacy and programs in more than 50 countries with a special focus on low-resource and developing nations.”
With the freeing up of funds from an organization who do next to nothing for breast health, the Komen Foundation will now be free to use these resources to bankroll organizations who provide wide-ranging breast services for women around the world. For those who are upset that Planned Parenthood will no longer have this grant opportunity, they are free to donate to Planned Parenthood directly (and they are). Given the fact that Planned Parenthood is actually a profitable business (netting $18.5 million last year), if women’s health is truly their top priority, it won’t suffer without Komen.
Why should promoting abortion have anything to do with advocating "women's health"? Do "men's health" organizations get federal funding to the extent that Planned Parenthood does?
I don't see any party in this controversy that "promotes" abortion, although I do see one party that offers referrals for that service (as less than 3% of its total service delivery of comprehensive women's reproductive healthcare) to low and middle income women, in the same safe circumstances that wealthier women can afford without the assistance of PP (just as they can afford the other 97% of what PP arranges for low and middle income clientele – STD screening, exams such as PAP tests, contraceptive options, etc., etc.) n
This is not that big a deal. People like me who donated to Komen and supported different events they sponsored will transfer our efforts donations to organizations we feel address the full range of womens health issues and care about women more than they fear conservative politicians and pro life groups. I didn't quit going to church and supporting religious causes after the Catholic sex abuse scandals broke and went unaddressed for too long. I shifted to a more honorable religion and put my financial support behind them. This is no different. It is not a big deal.
And people like me would would not be associated with Komen while the organization supported the nation's largest provider of abortion will now transfer our donations since Komen has decided to support life.
I noticed NPR this morning with its oar in this particular pond, positing that Koman had again landed on the wrong side of an issue. The article cited it's position contra the FDA's decertification of Avastin in treatment for recurrent, recalcitrant breast cancer and its advocacy for maintenance of an aggressive life schedule for mammography, against the current recommendations to postpone initial screening and reduce frequency in relatively younger women. The article was purposively unaware of the fact that the quasi-governmental positions on those two issues were legitimately debatable. Of course, the decision was politically motivated, but why antagonize your donor base to send money to a largely wasteful example of window-dressing at Planned Parenthood. In order for a mammogram screening program to be effective, it should have a seamless interface with more sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic resources to accommodate positive findings, something I doubt exists in may PP centers. Like pap smear and other "women 's health" screening, and even, to an extent, with birth control, mammography at Planned Parenthood is frosting on the cake, the cake being abortion. nGerard Balsley
This article is abject nonsense. Planned Parenthood is one of the very few organizations that provides mammograms and other health services to very low-income women. When I heard what the Susan G. Komen Foundation (a organization now headed by a far right-wing politician) did with respect to Planned Parenthood, I made a donation to Planned Parenthood. And i encourage all my friends to do likewise.
Planned Parenthood representatives have themselves admitted that fewer than five of their offices have mammography equipment. Aside from that, according to the annual report only 10% of Planned Parenthood's patients are over 40 – which is the recommended age for beginning regular mammography.
Actually if you look at the sites of local PP operations, you'll see that PP is offering mammography (paid for by Komen grants) via the appropriate licensed medical facilities. So this action by Komen will stop that. n nAs far as "fainting couch," please, and hardly. But I'm afraid Commentary does nothing but lower its reputation, by spewing low-grade, unresearched accusations.
PP provides mammograms? Show me the link.
well, actually, there is. Planned Parenthood either does or doesn't offer mammograms or other "advanced" screening procedures. shouldn't there be some really easy way to find out? like look on their website? or call them? n nwhich I believe a pro-life activist did last year, and discovered that no, they don't offer that. if you don't believe her, I invite you to do your own research and report back. n nbtw, if you think THIS is a "shouting match" you must be very new to the internet! commentary is one of the sanest, least inflammatory sites out there, and most of the commenters are pretty smart.