Komen aborts plans to defund Planned Parenthood
AVNews reported this week on the decision by breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure to stop funding Planned Parenthood. In that report we hinted that the decision was not made for principled reasons and stated, “This means, essentially, that as soon as the Congressional investigation is over, Komen may go right back to funding Planned Parenthood again.”
We were too correct in our suspicions. Komen did not even wait for the investigation to be over, but after public outcry from the pro-choice crowds, the foundation announced within days of the original decision that it will revise its policy so as not to include “political” cases like this one with Planned Parenthood, essentially ensuring it will resume the donations.
According to WorldMag.com, Komen released the following statement,
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.
(Except, apparently, for the lives of the half of aborted babies that are female.) The statement continues,
The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. 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.
Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.