Komen for the Cure announced an end this week to its grants to Planned Parenthood for screening and education programs. By way of a defense, the nation's most prominent breast-cancer organization said it had adopted new funding standards: organizations facing investigations by local, state, or federal authorities would be cut off.
Since Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) is spearheading a witch hunt against Planned Parenthood, the far-right congressman's unproven allegations are enough to end the cancer-screening grants.
The widely-held assumption has been that Komen's explanation is a thinly-veiled excuse, intended to obscure a politically-motivated decision. The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg reports that the assumptions are well grounded.
[T]hree sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process told me that the rule was adopted in order to create an excuse to cut-off Planned Parenthood. (Komen gives out grants to roughly 2,000 organizations, and the new "no-investigations" rule applies to only one so far.)
The decision to create a rule that would cut funding to Planned Parenthood, according to these sources, was driven by the organization's new senior vice-president for public policy, Karen Handel, a former gubernatorial candidate from Georgia who is staunchly anti-abortion and who has said that since she is "pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood." (The Komen grants to Planned Parenthood did not pay for abortion or contraception services, only cancer detection, according to all parties involved.) [...]
Another source directly involved with Komen's management activities told me that when the organization's leaders learned of the Stearns investigation, they saw an opportunity. "The cart came before the horse in this case," said the source, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity. "The rule was created to give the board of directors the excuse to stop the funding of Planned Parenthood. It was completely arbitrary. If they hadn't come up with this particular rule, they would have come up with something else in order to separate themselves from Planned Parenthood."
Goldberg added that Komen's decision was so contentious within the organization that Mollie Williams, the group's top public health official, "resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board's decision to cut off Planned Parenthood."
In the meantime, Planned Parenthood supporters have rallied behind the group, contributing $650,000 in 24 hours, which is "nearly enough to replace last year's Komen funding."
Also keep an eye on Washington today. Capitol Hill sources told me last night that there will be some additional word from Democratic lawmakers outraged by Komen's decision.
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In the meantime, Planned Parenthood supporters have rallied behind the group, contributing$650,000 in 24 hours, which is "nearly enough to replace last year's Komen funding."
OUTSTANDING JOB!! We The People can and will make the difference!
Here's the link for anybody who wishes to make a donation (every little bit helps):
https://secure.ppaction.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=pp_ppol_Nondirected_OneTimeGift&s_src=ppol_onetimegift_old
By the way, Karen Handel is a symptom. This decision ultimately falls on founder and CEO Nancy Brinker (the organization was named after Brinker's sister who died of breast cancer).
Brinker released a video in response to the blow back from this decision. This video contradicts the reporting in a few ways, one of which is that she states that multiple grant recipients are affected by this decision. She doesn't mention Planned Parenthood by name, she doesn't respond directly to the complaints, she doesn't state what their new "exacting standards" are. She essentially says that the reporting on this issue is false. However, as far as I know, they still won't speak to the media to answer questions. Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4oOh6JhayA&feature=youtu.be
Question Number One has to be "Why in the world would an organization famous for being at the forefront of advocacy for womens' health rights hire a person (albeit a woman) who has a record of public, political and personal hostility toward womens' health rights?"
It's a mystery.
The bottom line is:
Komen is losing this money that would NORMALLY have gone to them.
If that doesn't make us happy, what does?
I think we should start a fund raising campaign for Susan G. in honor of their recognition that a political agenda is much more important than the mere lives of a few hundred thousand poor women! /not
Is the Susan G Komen Foundation becoming another part of the Reich-Wing Welfare system for out-of-work repuke politicians? Like the American Red Cross!
I have lost complete respect for Susan G. Komen and its work. They will never get another penny from me. I will never participate in a function they sponsor and I will make sure that every woman I know hear about this. Witch hunt away folks but my money goes directly to Planned Parentfood from this point on. The real disgrace for Susan G. Komen is that their funs were for cancer screening only, not anything to do with abortion so regardless of whether or not you support abortion has NO CAUSAL LIKE WHATSOEVER to cancer screening. This could be a marketing nightmare for the foundation.
I am confused (seems to be a lot of this going on today- maybe an off day for me? who knows): if none of the money going to PP is used for abortion services or contraceptive services (which in and of itself is a nonsensical contradiction) and all that money, according to both parties, is going just for breast screening....then why cut off funding? You aren't supporting abortions or abortion services you're supporting breast screening services. Is there some right wing conspiracy that abortion causes breast cancer????
That's the point. They are doing it for political and personal agendas of their VP Karen Handel.
Will no longer send donation to Susan G. Komen, but instead to Planned Parenthood.
On my way to make donation to PP, then take out my 1979 bumper sticker "Save A Life, Whack a PEEPEE".
SGK has cut off its own nose, and the plastic surgeons have left the building.
Not before the Komen foundation paid for that facelift on that CEO. That witch pays herself almost a half million a year. How many cancer survivers have to walk to pay for that? Over bloated and greedy is how I would describe this foundation. I pulled all the pink ribbons of my hoodies and will pretend they don't exist. I am going direct from here and donating to planned parenthood.
how about placing black tape over them, that way others who dont know what up, (you can bet there will be a lot of them) will maybe ask then can tell them.
just a suggestion.
Fabulous, tigershark!
If you still want to support breast cancer research, testing, and treatment for underserved women, there's always the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I'm proud to have crewed this walk for the last four years, and will crew again this spring. Not that direct donation to PP isn't a good thing, but Komen isn't the only game in town.
Wow, Susan Komen shame on you. Yay for the rest of the world stepping up on donations. I plan to tell the Komen foundation EVERY time they call me, that I am no longer giving them my money. I'll give it to "real" women's organizations, not ones with right wing agenda's.
Amen, and I'm right there with you.....
Just when you think they cannot get any slimier...
Karen Pollitt wrote at The Nation this morning that Komen's defunding of Planned Parenthood was right wing social engineering done by Karen Handel, senior vice president for public policy.
"Handel is not your typical philanthropy administrator. She is a Republican pol, a former Georgia secretary of state, who ran in the 2010 gubernatorial primary, with endorsements from Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and anti-immigrant finger-pointing Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. At that time she described herself as "staunchly and unequivocally pro-life," opposed to stem cell research and a fan of crisis pregnancy centers—places that have repeatedly been shown to use scare tactics and misinformation to dissuade women from seeking abortions. She vowed to eliminate from the state budget pass-through grants to Planned Parenthood for breast and cervical cancer screenings."
Karen Handel is another fine example of the American Taliban forcing its rigid theocratic agenda on everyone else.
Particularly pleased with above use of term, "...American Taliban...." The obscene extremism of the White Wing Christians needs to be discussed in much the same terms as are used for other terrorist groups. Stoning women to death is about as horrid as it gets. And allowing a woman to die for lack of legal abortion is an improvement? The White Wing gleefully pushes for legislation though could very well make using birth control pills a criminal act called Murder...and yet whines and pouts and stomps their little feet about "government intrusion"? It's all disgusting and as a nation we do well to start treating the White Wing as such.
We're not even talking about abortion here, we're talking about basic healthcare for women, especially low income women -- cancer.
Planned Parenthood is just one of the American institutions on the right-wing's purge list, being carried out in a coordinated attack at the federal, state and local level. Collective bargaining, scientific research and education are others.
ACORN was lynched in public because of complicit media coverage and because the poor could not defend themselves from thinly veiled racist assaults.
Planned Parenthood does too much good work and has too much wide public support to just roll over and die.
The Komen boycott should immediately extended to its corporate sponsors, many of which -- for a fee -- slapped a pink ribbon on their cancer-causing products.
I truly believe that the Right is not going after PP for abortion but because they are the largest distributor of contraception and that is their true target. They know that abortion services only makes up three percent. But it's so politically incorrect to come out against contraception, so they use the abortion mantra.
Here's an interesting breakdown on financials up to 2009: http://goo.gl/QwlyO
It was also nice to see that the Denver office decided to stand up and continue to help Planned Parenthood through March 2013: http://t.co/2Hvg4cL1
Also, Yoplait yogurt and pink lids. All of those lids go towards Komen and Race for the Cure: http://goo.gl/P50ym
There are lots of petitions out there too.
The SGK in Connecticut is also still funding PP.
I hadn't seen a story about Connecticut, MsJoanne. That's great!
I guess a boycott of Yoplait is in order.
I've updated all my G+ posts to show Connecticut too still supports Planned Parenthood.
Will throw their mail in the garbage from now on.
Send it back, using their postage-paid envelopes and bulk mail permit.
Better yet, if there is an envelope with return postage on it, mail their junk back to them, without a donation, with "Planned Parenthood" written in bold letters on their material.
Edit: karen, didn't see your comment before I posted. Great minds...
Like the send back with Planned Parenthood note excellent advice.
Better yet, send it back to them stating that your donation is now going to Planned Parenthood.
Why is nobody outright blaming the near-instantaneous corruption by the "new hire" to VP/Pub. Pol. on the Komen board? And how can the board select grantees based on anything other than medical potential? Shame on Handel for bringing her religion to the workplace!
Plenty people are blaming her, but SGK has been doing bad things for a while. I certainly wouldn't call it "near-instantaneous". I would call it, a long time coming.
AMF, Exactly! Look at the composition of the board. Last May, Nancy Brinker appointed Jane Abraham to the board of SGK Advocacy Alliance. Jane Abraham is chair of the Susan B. Anthony List, which was instrumental in getting the bogus congressional investigation off the ground.
The rot is much higher than some VP who can be jettisoned when this goes badly for SGK.
I read yesterday that SGK was originally founded by someone who is pretty right-wing herself.
I read so much yesterday that I don't recall where I read that.
This from Wikipedia:
And my reading yesterday said that Brinker was always on board with the anti-abortion idea. I am not sure how PP originally got funding. The only thing I can think of is that PP wasn't being attacked as much as it has been in the last couple of years.
And the whole setup is no different than ACORN or Shirley Sherrod. Lie, defame and then say Ooops, when it's proven to be false.
I've been learning more and more about "Susan G. Koman for the Cure" in the past few days. I really think looking into what SGK for the cure is is very important .... "C Street" important - please consider do some investigative reports on this right wing oraganization that successfully blocks a lot of legislation FOR women's health care - there is a movie coming out today in Canada called "Pink Ribbon's Inc." and then this on Dailykoshttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/01/1060885/-Behind-the-Pink-Curtain-Komens-Political-Agenda?via=siderec
Will not buy any products that donate to SBK.
No more Komen runners support from our family. Who will be organizing the demonstrations at their events around the country.
So if a legislator accuses someone of wrongdoing without evidence and solely out of malice, SGK will happily strap her to a ducking chair and drop her into a pond to see if she really is a witch?
That's what amazes me the most! One right-wing wacko can just point a finger and that's considered an "investigation"?!?! Once I found out that a very minor amount of their money actually goes to cancer research (like 20% or so), I stopped buying products that support them. And I will now be looking into any companies that support their cause, and will be boycotting them, as well.
& yet we have not seen any severing of ties with Bank of America by the folks @Komen.
It reminds me of the McCarthy era (not that I lived through it- reminds me in the sense of what I learned about in school). One dude stands up in Congress and gets to point to everyone in the room and say "communist!" and the next thing you know that person's entire life story has to be thoroughly examined to make sure he aint a red. What I don't get is how people didn't already learn from this.
It's time to de-fund ignorance. Stop contributing to Komen for the Cure! When will this nonsense stop?
Hey Rachel...
I have an idea for the "latest Greatest" category..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M&feature=player_embedded
Happy Groundhog Day! And today Donald Trump came out of his penthouse and saw Newt Gingrich! Now we will have four more years or Barack Obama!
Most excellent!
Is far Rightwing ideology our new form of cancer, afflicting our vital organs of health services, medical care and doctor/patient privacy?
The evidential pattern is more than pronounced at this stage of our body politik! -Kevo
I have supported SGK in the past, but no more. My money is now also going to PP.
I have doubled my contributions to Planned Parenthood and will never wear pink, ribbon or anything else. It is way past time for SGK to have a precipitous decline in support.
A sad thing to wake up to this morning…the "American Talliban" as another reader wrote, is unfortunately, alive and well in the good ol' U.S.A. Thankfully, we still have the option to vote with our money! More to Planned Parenthood, scratching Komen off my list! Boy, that feels good!!
I made a donation to Planned Parenthood yesterday, and will continue to make more as I can. I used to make donations to Komen and do the Race for the Cure...not any more.
I told all my friends through calls and social networks to take all the money they would give to Race for the Cure and donate directly to Planned Parenthood instead. I also told them to switch from Yoplait to another yogurt or to just not turn the lids in because those go to Komen too.
Have any reporters looked into how much money Brinker and Handel make as board members of Komen? Also, many KUDOS to the Denver affiliate of Komen for standing up for their constituents! Breast cancer doesn't give a flying f for politics - it will kill anyone, man or woman regardless of political affiliation. I have to wonder, however, if Ms. Handel will institute a new policy now - no one may have a breast cancer screening funded by Komen unless she signs a statement saying she has never had an abortion or thought about having an abortion. That, after all, would be the next logical step I would think. Evil woman.
As a Denverite, I'm very happy to hear that the Denver affiliate is standing against this ridiculous decision. I hadn't heard that news yet, so thanks for sharing!
Brinker makes $450,000 a year, according to another G+ poster (I don't have a link to verify that, just her word). I posted Komen's company financial's through 2009 in another post.
and right after that, the question will be 'and have you ever used contraceptives?'
Carianne ... It's nice that the Denver Komen affiliate doesn't agree with the decision, but it doesn't make much difference unless it can direct funds to Planned Parenthood offices in the Denver area.
This is a pernicious management decision. What a shame that an organization that has done a lot of good has gone bad.
We need a list of the other 2000 agencies. Find out which are under investigation and hold Komen's feet to the fire. I'm certain a significant number are under investigation by someone for something.
I have an idea. Let's hit Komen's corporate supporters in the pockets. Boycott Yoplait and every other company that donates to the cause by our buying their product.
Whole lot of former Yoplait consumers are sharing this idea on the corp's FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/Yoplait?sk=wall&filter=1
YES! Campbell Soups is another...
No. I'm sorry, but we have to start with letters first. It's not just politeness, they might actually work. While there's no doubting the dangers corporations can pose, or the evil results of Citizens United, we have a hanit of acting like we believe all corporations are oened by the Koch brothers, and are part of one "United Front' set up to attack us everywhere in unison. This is as true -- and as rational -- as the right-wing belief that the entire Left is funded by George Soros.
In fact, on social issues particularly, corporations are not merely -- for the most part -- not agreeing with the Republicans, many of them are actually out in front of the Democrats on issues like treating gay and straight marriages equally and pushing back against 'ethnic group discrimination.' Sexual discrimination is moving a little slower, which points to the explanation. Businesses are -- and are legally required to be, it's what 'fiduciary responsibility' means -- interested first in profits. Discriminating against gays is public and can cost them customers -- see the Target story last year or Denny's for racial discrimination -- but holding back women is not as visible and giving pay equality can hurt the bottom line.
So write them letters, lay out the case, and then, if they don't respond, you wheel out the 'boycott gun.'
And while you are writing letters -- and you can, visibly CC them so that companies know they aren't being the only ones targeted -- you might consider looking at old ads and stuff from Komen. Do they have 'celebrity spokespeople'? Write them too, and ask if they want to keep supporting them.
I'm sorry to say something that will sound superficial and condescending, but, please, please, PLEASE! remember we aren't just 'venting.' We're trying to accomplish something. We 'wear the white hats' so we have given up the option of dishonesty, but shaping an argument to make it more effective isn't the same as 'making one up.' Some times we on the Left can be just a leeetle too 'purist' to be effective.
Energizer just made a big donation to them, as well...so, be sure to buy Duracell from now on.
I am sure there is some investigation going on with at least one other of the 2000, or so, org they contribute to. It is hard to be involved in anything like that, even if you are honest, and run a perfect ship.
I, too, think there should be an independent audit of their money. They received government funding and there should be an accounting of that money to make sure it was spent the way it was supposed to be. You can bet that if Handel and Brinker were Democrats that the Republicans would be calling for an investigation of funds. Where is Issa on this- didn't he initially say he wanted to investigate everything?
If SGK came under investigation, wouldn't they have to stop supporting themselves under their new policy?
Also, why didn't they announce an end to their ties with BofA at the same time as PP? You'd have to be living under a pretty big rock not to know that they're under investigation.
agreed.. to think how hard I used to work on our clubs Rally for the Cure.. it pains me to find out we worked our butts off for over 10 years for frauds and charlatans.. I did realize early on, reading the small print that if people choose a magazine then part (pretty big) of your entry fee went to Conte Nast.. We just suggested that the golfers not choose to receive any of the magazines.. I am so disappointed.. I pledge to give directly to Planned Parenthood what my entry fee plus any donations I would have made for Rally.. I also pledge to not buy any Komen endorsed products..
it's not just 'Komen endorsed products' but products (corporations) that have endorsed Komen.
How about a list of corporations and products, please?
you can find them here.
http://ww5.komen.org/corporatepartners.aspx