Feb 12
10
Komen Planned Parenthood Cuts Reversed
Jill here to report on something near and dear to my heart for a couple reasons. Last week, I read a story first about how the infamous Susan G. Komen organization, which was founded by Ms. Komen’s sister since she passed away with breast cancer, decided to back out its generous money grant funding of Planned Parenthood breast cancer screenings.
The outcry was immediate. Women and men and organizations, consumer rights advocates, you name it, all expressed outrage at the decision. I must admit, I was shocked to read that this was one of the areas where the nonprofit organization decided to pull back.
Not only does Planned Parenthood (also known as Family Planning) offer birth control options and education to people who cannot otherwise afford it, but they also offer breast cancer screenings to women who are in need and may not have medical insurance coverage to get their breasts monitored for the deadly disease.
It seemed like somewhat of a heartless, pointless blow to a great nonprofit organization, and it did seem unfair. However, Susan G. Komen was quick to point out that the pulling of funds was in no way politicaly motivated. I’m assuming what they meant by this was that they were not judging the organization for providing birth control (which is frowned on by many religions) and counseling about things like abortions (also a big religious and political hot bed of debate).
At any rate, they did defend themselves on their decision to pull funding. However, the heat must have been too great, and in the same day I read about the funding being pulled, the story reversed and Komen decided to completely reverse their decision on the funding.
I’m glad they did this. I was a client of Planned Parenthood for a long while when I was a broke college student. I was sexually active back then, and I really could have gotten myself in trouble at an early age with an unwanted pregnancy or STD had I not had Planned Parenthood to supply me with condoms and other forms of birth control as well as to give me checkups that I couldn’t otherwise afford as a poor student.
The whole reason the funding was pulled in the first place is because Planned Parenthood is the subject of a Federal investigation that appears to be politically motivated and is tied to their advocacy of a woman’s choice to abort her fetus if the pregnancy is not wanted.
