Breast cancer charity cuts Planned Parenthood funding
The liberal press is stewing with suppressed rage over what it perceives as a pro-life victory over its beloved Planned Parenthood. Breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure has now cut all funding for the abortion provider.
Komen cites a new policy of not funding any organization currently under Congressional investigation as reason for its decision, but leftist critics hint at a vast right-wing conspiracy—or at least, political pressure from the right. The LA Times reports,
In what looks to be a break between two organizations dedicated to women’s health, a national breast cancerawareness group said it would stop providing funds toPlanned Parenthood centers for breast cancer examinations and other breast health services.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a leader in fundraising for breast cancer research and famous worldwide for its iconic pink ribbon, said Tuesday that it was halting all partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates because of recently adopted criteria that forbid it from funding any organization under government investigation.
In September, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) launched an inquiry to determine whether Planned Parenthood uses public money to fund abortions. Planned Parenthood receives federal money but cannot use it to provide abortions.
Komen has a long history of providing funding to various Planned Parenthood affiliates for such services as manual breast exams and referrals for mammograms and biopsies to check suspicious lumps for cancer. Although that money is not used for abortions, the Komen Foundation may have yielded to demands from antiabortion groups to sever its ties to Planned Parenthood.
“We had the sense this was coming and that they were under pressure,” said Sue Dunlap, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. “I find this really disappointing. I think when women’s health is more of a political conversation than a conversation about healthcare and taking care of people, then we’ve gone too far.”
The Washington Post laments that “there’s not much Democrats can do,” and suggests, “The only possible backstop here might be pressure from Planned Parenthood supporters pushing back in the opposite direction.”
One WaPo editorial is helping spread awareness of how mad liberals get when you touch their golden calf:
Tonight, pro-choice women across the country are beyond furious that Komen has dropped its funding of breast exams through Planned Parenthood.
The post relates,
Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead tweeted, “I am crying in a cab at this Komen decision. Tomorrow we will rally. Who is in this fight with me! You can no longer sit idly by.”
Pro-lifers should not be too quick to celebrate this as a major victory, but tentative at best. While pro-life organizations have in the recent past severed ties with Komen over its PP donations, Komen spokesperson Leslie Aun has gone out of her way to deny the influence of conservative activism. The Atlantic reports,
The key factor behind Komen’s decision, Aun told Fox News, is not ongoing protests of Planned Parenthood — the Alliance Defense Fund was quick to praise Komen “for seeing the contradiction between its lifesaving work and its relationship with an abortionist that has ended millions of lives” — but an audit launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, to determine whether public money had been spent on abortions over the last decade.
This means, essentially, that as soon as the Congressional investigation is over, Komen may go right back to funding Planned Parenthood again.
But if they do, my bet is they will do it very quietly.