Susan G. Komen race for redemption
Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest grassroots network for breast cancer survivors and activists. According to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure website, members and volunteers are “working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures.” However, on Feb. 1, the organization chose to pull funding from another organization dedicated to women’s health, Planned Parenthood.
Cartoon from MCT Campus
According to Planned Parenthood’s website, “For more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has promoted a commonsense approach to women’s health and well-being, based on respect for each individual’s right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex and family planning.”
When Komen chose to pull grants from Planned Parenthood, they chose to take away about $600,000 a year that provided breast cancer screenings and other preventative services to women who otherwise could not afford them. They went against their very mission and chose to value politics above women’s health.
Of course, Komen was not thinking about those who help support them. A large portion of Komen’s supporters are women, and according to Planned Parenthood, one out of five women chooses Planned Parenthood as a health service provider at some point. Komen’s choice created an outrage—such a large outrage that the organization reversed the decision two days later.
Komen’s reason for the initial defunding of Planned Parenthood was a newly adopted foundation rule that prohibits the foundation from funding any group under a formal investigation by a government body. Planned Parenthood is currently being investigated by Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican who says he is trying to learn whether the group spent public money on abortion services.
However, according to an article posted on The Atlantic website, three sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process said the rule was adopted to create an excuse to cut off Planned Parenthood. The new rule only affected Planned Parenthood, one of about 2,000 organizations to which Komen gives grants. The decision also could be linked to Komen’s recent hiring of a new vice president for public policy, Karen Handel, who is a former politician and very vocal about her anti-abortion and anti-Planned Parenthood stances.
After many of the very people who support Komen spoke out against this decision and chose to stand by Planned Parenthood, Komen realized the magnitude of its mistake. Long-time supporters and donors (some corporate, and of considerable size) were walking away from Komen, no longer able to support an organization that went against its own mission.
On Feb. 3, Komen announced the reversal of its decision to take funds away from Planned Parenthood. The organization said the original decision had not been a political one (decide for yourself whether you want to believe that one). The statement from the board of directors and founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker stated, “We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics— anyone’s politics.”
Only time will tell whether the reversal will put Komen back in favor with those who turned their backs on the charity. It is despicable that for political reasons a charity dedicated to women’s health would take away access to the health services they encourage, and I think Komen’s choice to reverse the decision was the right and ethical choice to make. I hope many more people and organizations can take note of this decision and stand together for a woman’s right to health, putting political motives aside.
