Tuesday, January 31, 2012

A bitter blow to woman's health from another woman's organization

Why Komen defunded Planned Parenthood

By now you'll all have seen the news. The Susan G. Koman Foundation has pulled their funding for low cost mammograms from Planned Parenthood. Why? Ostensibly because Planned Parenthood is "under investigation" (let me roll my eyes). The reality is, Koman has a right wing VP, Karen Handel, who is virulently anti abortion.
I've been utterly stunned by this. Koman's stated mission is a "world without cancer." So of course pulling funds from an agency that helps women with their health makes complete sense, right?
Komen Foundation Ends Funding for Breast Cancer Screenings After Years of Political Pressure How can this be?
Koman has killed its credibility with this move. There are other, wonderful, organizations who concentrate on cancer research. Who don't dedicate so much time to publicizing themselves. Donate to them. Donate to Planned Parenthood. Support organizations who actively support women's health and women. Don't support an organization that bends to right-wing pressures. Don't donate to cowards.

2 comments:

Demeur said...

Actually I see this as a good thing. It's brought attention to the issue and from what I'm hearing Planned Parenthood has made up for the loss in very short order. Even Bloomberg sent them a couple of hundred K.

Demeur said...

Update: Karen Handel has just resigned from the Susan G Korman Foundation translation: As Donald Trump would put it, You're fired!