Susan G. Komen for the Cure has previously been ridiculed for its bullying of other charities and its lawsuit against any charity using “for the cure” in its name or advertising. Now it is receiving criticism for cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood affiliates and preventive screening services. It is the first time the organization has cut off such funding based on a new rule involving organizations under investigation by Congress.
The House oversight and investigations subcommittee announced in the fall that it would investigate Planned Parenthood’s funding. The organization often becomes a hot button issue during election periods due to the abortion controversy.
Komen has been targeted in a campaign to defund Planned Parenthood. Last year, it hired a vice president who had previously advocated for the group’s defunding in her run for Georgia governor.
Source: Washington Post
Planned Parenthood Decision Puts Spotlight on Susan G. Komen’s Politics
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/planned-parenthood-decision-puts-spotlight-susan-g-komen-200300991.html
Excerpt:
Komen maintains that its decision was not politically motivated — a spokesperson says that the move was a result of the breast-cancer charity’s new rule barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by the local, state, or federal government. But, as Fox News reports, out of the 200,000 or so groups to which Komen awards grants, only Planned Parenthood has been affected by the new rule. And others note that, given Komen’s 2011 statement lauding Planned Parenthood for its service to poor, uninsured, and underinsured women, politics may be the only reason to cut funding now.
“While Komen Affiliates provide funds to pay for screening, education and treatment programs in dozens of communities, in some areas, the only place that poor, uninsured or under-insured women can receive these services are through programs run by Planned Parenthood,” the March 2011 statement read. “These facilities serve rural women, poor women, Native American women, women of color, and the un- and under-insured. As part of our financial arrangements, we monitor our grantees twice a year to be sure they are spending the money in line with our agreements, and we are assured that Planned Parenthood uses these funds only for breast health education, screening and treatment programs.”
Last night, the Komen web site was hacked. Somebody did a screen grab and it is in this comment by a Daily Kos user. I especially like the “upside down” ribbon object at the bottom….rather appropriate, if anyone cares to ask me.
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1061363/44831885#c29
Susan G. Komen for the Cure founder defends Planned Parenthood decision
Nancy G. Brinker says abortion is not the reason that grants for breast cancer exams are being cut off. Lawmakers, women’s health advocates and others continue to criticize the move, and both groups see donations pour in.
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-komen-backlash-20120203,0,693195.story
Excerpt:
“I’m sad,” said Dr. Susan Love, president of the Santa Monica-based Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, which released a statement decrying the Komen move. “Whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, it doesn’t really matter because it’s a separate issue. What Planned Parenthood is doing is giving [referrals for] mammograms and [providing] breast exams — helping women who don’t have access to that care.”
Love’s sister-in-law, Tina, 45, visited Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening five years ago. Worried about a suspicious breast lump, but without health insurance, the Santa Barbara-based independent filmmaker had ignored the mass until it grew larger. The lump turned out to be cancerous.
Tina Love was treated and is now cancer-free. She said she might never have caught the cancer at an early stage had Planned Parenthood services not been available.
“I might have just brushed it off,” she said.
Elaine,
Forgot to say…Thanks…
Elaine M.
1, February 3, 2012 at 1:28 am
Komen’s $7.5 Million Grant to Penn State Appears to Violate New Policy
—By Adam Serwer with additional reporting by Kate Sheppard| Thu Feb. 2, 2012
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/02/komen-foundation-gave-75-million-grant-penn-state
That is why this is a valuable blog…..The information may be out there…but unless you know where to look….it is like an untouched book…You do not know what is in there….
And the hits just keep on coming:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/us/komen-foundation-urged-to-restore-planned-parenthood-funds.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
It works every damn time … I love it!
SwM
thanks for the info. It is thankful that on this issue the lines are so clearly drawn partywise. Not so otherwise. Nor even Obama himself.
.
Komen’s $7.5 Million Grant to Penn State Appears to Violate New Policy
—By Adam Serwer with additional reporting by Kate Sheppard| Thu Feb. 2, 2012
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/02/komen-foundation-gave-75-million-grant-penn-state
Excerpt:
Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which recently announced that it is ending grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening because of a controversial investigation launched by an anti-abortion Republican congressman, currently funds cancer research at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to the tune of $7.5 million. Like Planned Parenthood, Penn State is currently the subject of a federal government investigation, and like the Planned Parenthood grant, the Penn State grant appears to violate a new internal rule at Komen that bans grants to organizations that are under investigation by federal, state, or local governments. But so far, only the Planned Parenthood grants appear to have been cancelled.
An internal Komen memo written by President Elizabeth Thompson and obtained by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic states that if “an applicant or its affiliates” is under investigation “for financial or administrative improprieties by local, state or federal authorities,” then “the applicant will be ineligible to receive a grant.” Penn State, the Pennsylvania university that the Hershey center is affiliated with, is currently under investigation by the federal government over the sexual assault scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who has been indicted on multiple counts of sexual abuse of children. In 2008, the Komen foundation awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant to the Hershey center to study treatments that could reduce the risk of breast cancer.
Under the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, university officials are required to “issue a timely warning if a reported crime represents a threat to the campus community.” The Department of Education announced that it was investigating Penn State over possible Clery Act violations last November, and a Penn State spokesperson told Mother Jones that the investigation is ongoing. The Komen foundation has not yet responded to a request for comment.
SGK has also decided to stop funds that go toward embryonic stem cell research.
From “Care2”:
Source:
http://www.care2.com/causes/susan-g-komen-foundation-also-stops-funding-embryonic-stem-cell-research.html#ixzz1lHCFF8OV
Karen Handel proudly re-Tweeted a truly ugly post by someone named Jade Morey. Sickening. She has since pulled it due to the negative backlash, but thanks to the miracle of the Internet, several people got screengrabs before it disappeared. Brainwrap has the story and the screengrab:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/02/1061021/-Update-x5:-Komens-PR-Nightmare:-A-Marketing-Perspective?via=siderec
Andrea Mitchell personal about Susan G. Komen’s defunding of Planned Parenthood
Politico
2/2/12
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72386.html
Excerpt:
As the firestorm intensified Thursday over the Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s yanking of Planned Parenthood funds, it was MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell who cut to the core of a faceless clash over money and policy by speaking personally of her own battle with breast cancer.
Interviewing Komen founder Nancy Brinker, Mitchell, who announced in September that she had been diagnosed with the disease, said she was “expressing the anger of a lot of people” about the organization’s controversial decision to end a grant to Planned Parenthood.
“I have been very identified [as] an outspoken supporter and participant in the races over the years, long before I myself ended up being diagnosed with breast cancer, so I just wanted to put that out there,” Mitchell told Brinker as they sat across a table from each other in the studio. “We’ve known each other a long time. But I come to you today expressing the anger of a lot of people, channeling through them, you see it on Twitter, you see it everywhere.”
Mitchell’s personal remarks came during a day in which the Komen organization found itself under attack on several fronts. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and dozens of other lawmakers denounced the group, a top official of the foundation reportedly resigned in protest, and a key sponsor of the “Race for the Cure” pulled out. And supporters of Planned Parenthood rallied to the group’s defense, donating over $600,000 in one day – and that doesn’t include $250,000 pledged by billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Brinker launched a media offensive to try to contain the growing fallout.
Mitchell began the interview with Brinker, her first since the controversy erupted earlier this week, by saying, “I have to tell you, this is shocking to a lot of your long-time supporters” and describing an encounter she had with a woman at the gym earlier in the day.
“I had not met her before, a gray-haired woman, probably in her 60s. She was wearing a gray T-shirt. And she said, ‘Look at my shirt. It’s inside out. I put it on by accident today. I’m not going to wear it anymore. I’ve torn the label out. It’s a Komen T-shirt,’” Mitchell told Brinker. “These are long-time supporters who’ve run with you and supported you, financially and otherwise. So they’re asking how could this have taken place?”
When Brinker responsed by saying that there had been a serious “mischaracterization” of what happened with Planned Parenthood, Mitchell interrupted.
She said long-time supporters of the organization were tracing the Komen’s decision back to the hiring of senior vice president of public policy Karen Handel, who has been vocal about her pro-life stance and opposition to the mission of Planned Parenthood.
“Dr. Kathy Plesser, a Manhattan radiologist on the medical advisory board of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s New York chapter, said she plans to resign from her position unless Komen reverses its decision to pull grant money from Planned Parenthood.
“I’m a physician and my interest is women’s health, and I am disturbed by Komen’s decision because I am a very strong advocate for serving under-served women,” Plesser told The Huffington Post. “Eliminating this funding will mean there’s no place for these women to go. Where are these women to go to have a mammography? Do they not deserve to have mammography?”
With her decision, Plesser joins Komen’s top public health official, Mollie Williams, and the executive director of Komen’s Los Angeles County chapter, Deb Anthony, both of whom also resigned in protest.”
Read the rest at “Susan G. Komen Top Officials Resign As Backlash Gains Steam”
Another Reason to Love the Decemberists: Their Smart Move on Susan G. Komen
By Alyssa Rosenberg on Feb 2, 2012
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/02/02/417853/decemberists-susan-g-komen/
The band, which has been active about fundraising for breast cancer since keyboardist Jenny Conlee’s bout with the disease, has decided to pull its support from Susan G. Komen For the Cure after that group made a clearly politicized decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood’s breast health work. Now, they’ll send the money they make from selling their Team Jenny t-shirts directly to Planned Parenthood’s Breast Health Emergency Fund. They’re not the only indie band taking action. The Mountain Goats, who are particularly politically active, warned their Twitter followers that “Pro-choice musicians, know that Komen for the Cure is now on the side of the bad guys.”
What’s particularly nice about the Decemberists’ action is that they’re not withdrawing the fight—they’re just giving their money to a direct service provider instead. Susan G. Komen for the Cure has a long list of bipartisan celebrity supporters, some of whom—like Neil Patrick Harris and Cynthia Nixon—have bigger national platforms than an indie band. Let’s hope some of them make the same decision, and help make it so Planned Parenthood is better off after losing Susan G. Komen’s support than they were before.
I appreciate the work that Susan G. Komen has done to make breast cancer a publicly discussable disease. But I also think that charities should have viable competitors to keep them honest. And for those of us who want a comprehensive approach to women’s health, and who want to give to a program that’s more about direct service and less about cancer culture and products, a reexamination of Susan G. Komen for the Cure is a healthy debate to be having and a spur to thoughtful philanthropy. It’s just too bad that Susan G. Komen for a Cure had to cut off aid to the women who need it most to get the conversation started.
idealist, I worked for a health and welfare legislative committee in the eighties. We dealt with women’s health issues all the time. The lines were not clearly drawn on the abortion issue as they are now. At that time there were pro-choice republicans that represented affluent protestant areas. George Pillsbury was one of them. There were, also, pro-life catholic legislators from working class neighborhoods .Kucinich used to be anti-abortion. Evangelicals were not involved yet. That all changed when the republican party adopted an anti-choice platform, and the democrats did the opposite.
idealist, I was specifically talking about the gop war on women. Obama appointed two female pro-choice supreme court justices. Bush appointed two male anti-abortion justices. Obama has not continued the Bush policies in this area. Like I said Planned Parenthood and NARAL are all in for him. Every blue dog democrat in the Texas House voted against the sonogram bill. Every republican voted for it.
Anti-Abortion Komen Vice President Pushed For Split From Planned Parenthood
By Amanda Peterson Beadle on Feb 2, 2012
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/02/02/417161/karen-handel-komen-planned-parenthood-split/
Excerpt:
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation caved to right-wing pressure and cut ties with Planned Parenthood. Their rationale was simple: Komen had new rules preventing it from funding any organization under investigation, so a spurious congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood led by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) prohibited Komen from continuing to fund breast exams through Planned Parenthood for women who otherwise wouldn’t receive them.
But now, new reporting from the Atlantic reveals that Komen adopted the new guidelines to cut off Planned Parenthood. That effort was led by Komen President Elizabeth Thompson, who knew that Planned Parenthood was the only group that would be affected by the rule, and Karen Handel, Komen’s new senior vice president for public policy.
*****
Top Susan G. Komen Official Resigned Over Planned Parenthood Cave-In
By Jeffrey Goldberg
Feb 2 2012, 9:28 AM
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/top-susan-g-komen-official-resigned-over-planned-parenthood-cave-in/252405/
Excerpt:
Sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process said recent policies were adopted specifically to cut funding to Planned Parenthood.
Update: Mollie Williams, the Komen official who resigned to protest the organization’s decision to de-fund Planned Parenthood, sent me a statement, which is reprinted in full at the end of this post.
An entirely avoidable, and deeply regrettable, controversy has been raging this week over the decision by the (formerly highly esteemed) Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation, the world’s leading breast-cancer research advocacy group, to cut its support for Planned Parenthood, which used Komen dollars (about $600,000 annually) to pay for breast-screening exams for poor people. (The Atlantic’s Nicholas Jackson has an excellent summary of the controversy so far.)
Komen, the marketing juggernaut that brought the world the ubiquitous pink ribbon campaign, says it cut-off Planned Parenthood because of a newly adopted foundation rule prohibiting it from funding any group that is under formal investigation by a government body. (Planned Parenthood is being investigated by Rep. Cliff Stearns, an anti-abortion Florida Republican, who says he is trying to learn if the group spent public money to provide abortions.)
But three 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.) I’ve tried to reach Handel for comment, and will update this post if I speak with her.
SwM,
I don’t have it in front of me. I was just pointing out that both sides ultimately play the same power game. They just wave different slogans.
While that may seem excessive, there are those inclined and capable of defending that position. And seeing the continuation of Bush tactics by Obama, the he is the Democratic leader……yes. And is responsible.
I said Blue dogs hardly merited a nod of approval. They opposed Obamacare, and took campaign or caucus monies from the insurance companies. Don’t have the link, but these are figures they ware required to declare. ( a minor point, seems to be over 200 caucuses registered)
IMHO, the Republicans have become so offensive and blatant in their declared goals, and sneak tactics that it is just as well to knee jerk react or to ignore them—–which is my privilege. I prefer to spend my time agitating for my point of view.
I even write letters to Obama. This was today’s:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/01/31/fbi-uses-chainsaw-in-raid-on-wrong-fitchburg-apartment/
With 20,000 letters from us per day, the odds are little that you read these lines.
Hopefully many others write you with the same message; and some staff does a status and trend summary for you.
My issue as many times before: the deteriorating situation regarding our civil rights.
Today it was a no-knock entry into a wrong address. Purportedly after two years of investigation. The photo and video recalling the event by the mother of a baby, etc.is not only heart-wrenchíng but shames us all. If this link gets to you or your staff, skip the tale; you’ve heard it many times before.
Note instead the words and tones used by the commenters. They are armed and prepared to fire without waiting when someone starts chainsawing their door.
Americans are armed. Which the Arabs are not. And now our frustration is growing. This is in no way intended as a threat.
Rather wishing you to be advised of what could become a dangerous situation.
As yet, while shocked, the public does not seem to be cowed yet by these questionable FBI etc practices.
Good luck in hopefully reversing this trend.
All the combat mentality from Iraq and Afghanistan is malplaced and dangerous ultimately here in our police in the USA.
The war on drugs is a mistake, as is the one on terrorism. But declaring this country to be a war zone is incredible in my opinion.
A PS was added about flying nanocopters with link
Jill,
I wrote:
It works both ways. You often paint the left with a broad brush stroke.
I’ve never heard of Democrats for Personhood of America. Can you provide some information on the group? I try to keep up with the subject of the current war on women.
I’m sure there are Republican women who are pro-choice–but they appear to choose to remain silent.
*****
You replied:
I will respectfully decline to argue with you about what I write on this blog since it is clear to me that you often have difficulty understanding what I write. I will say to claim I have made any statements remotely like comparing Republican women to cancer cells is just false.
Here is the group: http://www.democratsforlife.org You will find others if you google for democrats who are pro-life and republicans who are pro-choice.
*****
I don’t think I have difficulty understanding what you write. I didn’t imply that your comment was akin to comparing people to cancer cells.
I do believe there are Republican women who are pro-choice. I also know there are Democrats who are anti-choice. Did I suggest that there are no Democrats who are pro-life/anti-choice?
*****
In your comment to Swarthmore mom and Blouise, you wrote:
If you will do a quick google search you will find several anti-choice groups specifically for Democratic women. One such is: Democrats for Personhood of America.
*****
I asked if you could provide information on Democrats for Personhood of America. I put that term in quotes and did a google search. The only thing that came up was this Turley Blawg post.
*****
A week or two ago on another thread you mentioned Chris Hedges and talked about how the left had sold out. I do believe some Democrats and liberals make a lot of excuses for President Obama and/or refuse to criticize him. I noted in a response to your comment the names of some people on the left who have criticized Obama and/or remained true to their principles. I asked that everyone on the left not be painted with the same broad brush. I think it best to call out those particular people that we believe have sold out and not just suggest it is everyone on the left.