The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, the nation's leading breast cancer charity that runs the popular Race for the Cure fundraisers, decided Tuesday to defund Planned Parenthood, which has used the hundreds of thousands of dollars it has received in grants over the years to fund breast exams and related breast health services. Planned Parenthood also provides abortion services, which has made it a constant target of right-wing politicians. But Planned Parenthood does not use the Komen funds for abortion services and this gap in funding likely will have severe consequences for low-income and uninsured women who depend on the organization for breast health services.
It is no coincidence that less than a year ago Komen hired as its senior vice president for public policy Karen Handel, a Republican who ran for governor of Georgia in 2010 on an anti-Planned Parenthood platform. While she wasn't successful in winning the governor's race, she managed to accomplish one of the goals she set out during her campaign: defund Planned Parenthood, as blogger John Aravosis astutely observed.
Komen said it was withdrawing its grants – $680,000 in 2011 and $580,000 in 2010 according to the Associated Press – because it has adopted a policy of not funding organizations that are under investigation by Congress. In a purely political move last fall, a conservative Republican congressman, Cliff Stearns of Florida, just happened to launch an investigation of Planned Parenthood at the behest of anti-abortion groups. Republicans in Congress have long tried to cut off Planned Parenthood's federal funding, which is used for family planning and preventive screenings; now, the group is facing the loss of significant private funding that was never used to provide abortions, but to help save women's lives.
There's something terribly wrong with this picture.
Jeanne Rizzo, the out leader of the Breast Cancer Fund, told us that her organization followed the story as it unfolded Tuesday. On the group's Facebook page, women (and men) lashed out, angry at the Komen Foundation and vowing to withhold financial support. "Our breasts are not political footballs," one woman wrote, adding that she would give the money she would raise for Komen to Planned Parenthood.
"We know that breast cancer itself is nonpartisan," Rizzo told us. "It crosses every political, socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic boundary and devastates the lives of hundreds of thousands of women – and those who love them – every year. We also know that those in greatest need rely on agencies like Planned Parenthood for breast health services."
Rizzo added that Komen's decision has "created a firestorm of polarized responses, including those of women worrying about how and where they will receive the care they need."
The Komen Foundation has been criticized by some breast cancer advocates over the years for its "pinkwashing" – the use of breast cancer philanthropy and the widely recognized pink ribbon by corporate marketers as cover to promote products that might be unhealthy – in return for a donation. Komen benefits greatly from these corporate tie-ins, raking in some $55 million annually, yet it cuts off less than $1 million in funding to Planned Parenthood for breast exams and related services.
Rizzo said that unlike the Komen Foundation, Planned Parenthood is its ally in the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Coalition, a diverse group of organizations united by a common concern about toxic chemicals in people's daily lives. "Planned Parenthood supports us by sharing our message of breast cancer prevention and we support their efforts to advocate for women's health and well-being," Rizzo added.
Breast exams are one of the most effective ways to detect breast cancer. Uninsured and poor women need access to these services. It's unconscionable that Komen hired an anti-choice politician to head up its policy division who then used her position to cut off money to an organization that serves the very women most in need of free or low-cost services. Women, gay and straight alike, should consider Komen's defunding decision next time they buy something with a pink ribbon on it or are asked to support a participant in Race for the Cure. Komen's move is clearly a race to the bottom.