Susan G. Komen for the Cure Pulls Funding From Planned Parenthood
Via Washington Post:
The Associated Press reports that Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, will cut off its funding to Planned Parenthood affiliates, where the foundation has traditionally paid for preventive screening services.
And here I thought they cared about breast cancer. I thought they cared about breast cancer screenings, early detection, and saving lives. Looks like I was wrong, since it seems that the Susan G. Komen Foundation has decided that breast cancer is political. Guess helping poor women with breast cancer detection is one of those entitlements that must be stopped.
And this is political.
Kalli Joe Gray of Daily Kos asks: “And the fact that Karen Handel, the foundation’s senior vice president of public policy, is “staunchly and unequivocally pro-life” is just a coincidence, right?”
I have given money to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure in the past, but I won’t be doing it again. And breast cancer is deeply personal to me. My best friend died of breast cancer on February 20, 2011. It is cause near and dear to my heart. As a young woman, before I had a job that offered health insurance, Planned Parenthood was my primary care physician. And the Republican tactic of making Planned Parenthood synonymous with abortion is just another one of their lies.
So what can we do? Mistermix at Balloon Juice offers advice:
That said, I’m confident that Komen’s funding will be replaced, and also that Komen will be a pale pink shadow of its former self unless it reverses this stupid decision and fires the people responsible. Check out list after list after list of Komen’s corporate sponsors. Do you think New Balance, Ford and Georgia-Pacific signed on for a public fight over Planned Parenthood? When Yoplait put a pink lid on its yogurt, did they do it to make it easier to boycott their products? Because that’s what’s going to happen. Unlike most boycotts, it’s easy to figure out which products you shouldn’t buy: anything that displays a pink ribbon with the Komen name.
As of today I will not buy any products sporting the pink ribbon with the Komen name. And I always bought those products – even though my family didn’t like Yoplait. In addition to stopping my financial contributions I will no longer participate in any Komen sponsored events. No more entrance fees for breast cancer walks or 5ks. No more purchasing items from their, or any other, stall at these events – and I spent a lot, because it was supposedly a “good” cause. But I guess Komen no longer believes in breast health for women who can only afford Planned Parenthood.
And from now on I will be donating my money to the Breast Health Emergency Fund. Please donate today.
(Link to Planned Parenthood’s response.)
will Komen offer the same screening services themselves? or have they decided that women who cant afford health care don’t deserve help?
The Susan G. Komen Foundation has been questionable for years now because of their treatment of other, smaller charities that use the term “for the cure.”
What bothers me is that the explanation offered by the Komen Foundation is so weak.
The explanation being that they cut off their working relationship w/PP because PP is being investigated. Which they are…by some right-wing nutjob Congressman from Florida:
“Komen says the key reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress — a probe launched by a conservative Republican who was urged to act by anti-abortion groups…Komen spokeswoman Leslie Aun said the cutoff results from the charity’s newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. According to Komen, this applies to Planned Parenthood because it’s the focus of an inquiry launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., seeking to determine whether public money was improperly spent on abortions.”
If the Foundation is to be consistent, then it would cut ties with any corporate sponsor that is being investigated. Which, of course, it won’t do.
Lame, very lame.
The explanation being that they cut off their working relationship w/PP because PP is being investigated.
By responding to this wingnut whacko, the Komen people specifically and loudly validated the conservative line that women’s lives are not worth much. Withdrawing funds from one of the major front lines in helping women to better breast health, the Komen people have made it plain that they are less interested in defeating breast cancer than they are in making sure that they enable conservatives in their war on women.
As for me — there will be no more walking, no more funding and fundraising for friends who are walking and not more buying of stuff with pink ribbons.
From Huff Po:
Komen Cuts Planned Parenthood Grants Months After Arrival Of New VP, Who Is Abortion Foe
Komen’s new vice president, Karen Handel, had run for governor of Georgia in 2010 on an aggressively anti-abortion and anti-Planned Parenthood platform and was endorsed by Sarah Palin because of her opposition to reproductive choice. Handel wrote in her campaign blog that she “do[es] not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.”
“As of today I will not buy any products sporting the pink ribbon with the Komen name.” Me too. This is an easy one.
I never went out of my way to buy such products, but I now will go out of my way to avoid them.
Well done, Pandora.
There is also the AVON Foundation, which sponsors Breast Cancer Walks around the country (they were doing it before Komen got involved). AVON was a big contributor to Food & Friends in DC when they were building their new home.
Thanks, Geezer.
I’m thinking that this will backfire on Komen.
My conservative colleague thinks nobody will dare go against Komen because its name is now synonymous with fighting breast cancer. Exactly the sort of challenge I enjoy.
The most annoying fiction that conservatives operate under is their belief that their values are widely shared. A widespread boycott of this organization will help put that myth to rest.
Komen w I’ll come to regret the day t hey hired Ms Handel the whacko from the peach state. Komen has been widely criticized in the non profit world for their heavy handed tactics and over broad trademarking tactics. They have upwards of 100 trademarks to discourage pink anything by local charitable operations. They richly deserve what is about to happen to them
Been researching this for the past half-hour. Komen’s expenditures on PP are/were about a half-million dollars annually. Its revenues from licensing pink ribbons are about $55 million.
Let’s see if ideological asshole wingnuts from Georgia know math.
I know I do, and SGK gives only about 20% of the money it raises to research.
This is free market at it’s finest. the most important thing to SGK is making sure no one else benefits IN ANY WAY from their trademarked brands.
Apologies if this is too long.
Komen can no longer claim the mantle of a respected organization. First, Komen last year hired Karen Handel, a former Georgia anti-choice gubernatorial candidate and Sarah Palin acolyte who promised as part of her platform to defund Planned Parenthood and other vital health services. Handel, who lost her race but is said to have future political ambitions, is now Senior Vice President for Policy at Komen. She was originally endorsed in her race by and received money from current GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, with whom some sources suggest she remains closely allied. Romney, in turn, has suddently become more anti-choice than thou and has promised a federal personhood amendment as well as to defund Planned Parenthood.
Second, sitting on Komen’s Advocacy Alliance Board is Jane Abraham, the General Chairman of the virulently anti-choice and anti-science Susan B. Anthony List and of its Political Action Committee. Among other involvements, Abraham helps direct the Nuturing Network, a global network of crisis pregnancy centers, organizations widely known for spreading ideology, misinformation and lies to women facing unintended pregnancy and to use both intimidation and coercion in the course of doing so. Also on the board of Nuturing Network is Maureen Scalia, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, no hero to women’s rights and health.
That Komen–an organization ostensibly dedicated to scientific exploration of cures for breast cancer–has invited on its advocacy board women so closely allied with organizations that so blatantly ignore science and medicine and spread outright lies to other women about their health and welfare speaks volumes about Komen’s ethical principles as an organization.While anti-choicers including those on Komen’s board are spreading lies, Komen’s steps will ensure that more women who might have been screened will now lack access to early detection and treatment and may die from breast cancer. This is in keeping with a general and patently insane approach of the anti-choice movement: Decry abortion, for example, but limit funding for contraceptive education and supplies which can prevent the unintended pregnancies that lead to abortion. Decry the plight of minority women, but make their access to care increasingly limited. Cry for the “babies,” but defund pre- and post-natal care, nutritional support, and other forms of life and health care for infants and mothers. It is a venal and disgusting strategy that until now I would have thought well beneath the Komen Foundation no matter other issues.
But Komen as an organization now appears so little able to stand the truth that it is deleting comments from its website protesting the policy change. And this is not the first time Komen has come under fire for misinformation or questionable affiliations. Some point to concerns about Komen’s influence on a recent Institute of Medicine report playing down environmental factors in breast cancer, and its close affiliation with many companies that manufacture products using cancer-causing agents.
Given these and other links, it may be no surprise that Komen’s own memo to its affiliates spreads lies about Planned Parenthood, nor that Komen’s actions belie its own claims to care about racial, ethnic and income disparities in access to breast cancer screenings.
Thank you, Joe. Anyone have a list of breast cancer research NPOs with a better record of steering dollars to the lab instead of the political process?
SGK’s financials, from Wikipedia footnoted to SGK site: In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, ending March 31, 2010, Komen reported approximately US $400 million in earnings. Of this, $365 million (91.3 percent) came from contributions from the public, including donations, sponsorships, race entry fees, and contributed goods and services. Approximately $35 million (8.8 percent) came from interest and dividends and gains on investments.[24]
That same fiscal year, Komen reported approximately US $360 million in expenses. $283.2 million of this went towards program services: $75.4 million (20.9 percent of total expenditure) went to research, $140.8 million (39.1 percent) went to public health education, $46.9 million (13 percent) went to health screening services, and $20.1 million (5.6 percent) went to treatment services. The other $76.8 million went to supporting services, including $36.1 million (10 percent of total expenditure) toward fund-raising costs and $40.6 million (11.3 percent) toward general and administrative costs.
Some critics point out that “public health education” mailings are often accompanies by fund-raising solicitations. Others maintain the organization sells its mailing list, contrary to its claims.
I don’t much care about that stuff. The bottom line is the amount dedicated to research, and 20% (it’s as high as 26% in some recent years) is too little. Even if every dollar listed under “Education” was used for that purpose, it would mean twice as much was going not to curing the disease but toward “educating” people about a disease that’s already near the top of the cancer list in at least half the population’s consciousness.
To amplify Michelle’s earlier point: SGK spent more than $1 million in legal fees against groups, many of them Mom and Pop events that struggled to reach $10,000 in donations, that dared to use the phrase “for the cure.” Didn’t matter what disease was involved, SGK cared more about its trademark “rights.” It has become a business with a tax exemption that it gets by giving just 25% of its revenue to its stated cause.
My dollars will go elsewhere (some already go to Planned Parenthood).
Locally the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition on 11th Street Google them:)
I think I may have mentioned they have upwards of 100 trademarks and they litigate at the drop of a hat. Knocking them out of NFL stadiums should be a primary goal!
Among the young women that I know Komen is the only breast cancer advocacy group that exists. Feel free to take a swing at it, but I don’t think there are enough people who care enough about abortion-rights to put a dent in this. Give it a go, but I think they’re bullet-proof on this.
Komen is the biggest. I think you’re wrong, occam, about not enough people caring about choice-rights. Much much more people support the right to chose. Those who are against choice are just a lot more loud, zealous, and forceful with their agenda… like those who now control Komen. I see a few ways to respond to this. 1, make a VERY nuanced assult against JUST the administration of the organization. Men should probably stay away from large national campaigns (at least who gets to go on the tv box) because, they will surely paint anyone who disagrees with them as “pro-cancer”. I’d love to see a male conservative tell a woman she is pro-cancer for trying to stop Komen’s Christian based assault on the poor.
2) there will NEVER be enough charitable organizations. If this once great institution has been defiled by conservatism, so be it. Let’s start a new one. Let’s start 60 new ones. Maybe one day sanity and clarity of mission will return to Komen and we can have 61 groups whos goal is to raise money to……. im very very sorry, but i cannot help myself…… SAVE THE TA-TAS
I was going to cross the Komen 3 day/60 mile off of my bucket list this year. this is heartbreaking. Fighting cancer should be bipartisan.
Not looking so bullet proof…
I’m sure the Komen foundation has raised a bunch of money in the last 24 hours from those anti-Planned Parenthood groups… only I can’t find any such report. Yes, that is sarcasm.
I did find this:
Talk about the fastest way to kill your brand. Komen has politicized breast health. Congratulations.
SGK could ride it out under the direction of this wingnut, but I don’t think the KFC’s P&G’s and Sarah lees’s of the world will go for it.
V – do this instead – http://www.avonwalk.org/
Well it seems there’s more to this story. The new VP at Komen who’s behind the defunding of Planned Parenthood is also a rabid anti-gay bigot.
It appears to me that Komen decided to pander to the right wing for some reason. Not sure if they get government money, but it could be that they didn’t want Congress to defund them.
Personally, I think that Komen really screwed the pooch on this one.
MJ: Way to report breaking news This appeared 23 hours ago with multiple posts of additional info on Komen’s RWNJ connections:)
Comment by jpconnorjr on 1 February 2012 at 10:29 am:
From Huff Po:
Komen Cuts Planned Parenthood Grants Months After Arrival Of New VP, Who Is Abortion Foe
Komen’s new vice president, Karen Handel, had run for governor of Georgia in 2010 on an aggressively anti-abortion and anti-Planned Parenthood platform and was endorsed by Sarah Palin because of her opposition to reproductive choice. Handel wrote in her campaign blog that she “do[es] not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.”
Sorry for my poor Leipsic awareness. Nice to know I don’t have to slam the brakes at the bridge:)
JSG – so what’s your point?
Great thread on an important topic! SKG has brought national focus upon itself, and what has been revealed is not a very pretty shade of pink. Their discredited defunding of PP has produced a spike in donations to PP which offset their defunding, and they are losing funding support themselves. They have become their own worst enemy!
In terms of people on the left finding their voice, I think there has been a lot of progress this year. I hope SGK (with it’s 80% overhead and whack-job Exec Dir.) is forced to do some serious soul searching.
Anyone who has visited my Facebook page has seen my outpouring of rage over this decision for the past two days. For one, I’m always a little wary of the cult dynamics of organizations such as this, this “rallying around the ribbon” ideology…I find myself never wanting to give any of my hard earned (or in my recent circumstances, unemployed) money to any so-called do-gooder group who spends such a large percentage of it’s donations on trinkets and such.
I’ve encountered some personal pushback. It’s amazing to me. There are some minor incidences of breast cancer in my family, but early detection and good health insurance have kept death from our doors…and for some reason my stance on this has opened me to ridicule. What? I am “against” the SKF? How could I be?
I’ll tell you why. 20% (or so) of all their raised funds go to research, towards the “cure”? That’s it??? Wiping away support from Planned Parenthood could be a death sentence to poor women across the country. Their top executives taking a strong anti-choice stance? Let’s call it what it is. Anti-choice. They are not concerned with being pro-life if they are in the process of taking life choices away from poor women.
I guess they want to choose who gets life. Unborn babies, yes. Poor women, no.
Occupy Mom: Check out my Facebook maybe we can share links:)
Here is a link to SGK’s corporate sponsors:
http://ww5.komen.org/CorporatePartners.aspx
I wonder how many of THEM have found themselves under investigation? Surely, Bank of America. Bet SGK doesn’t intend to cut ties with them…
Back in July, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer while 6 months pregnant. Next thing I see around the house and in the mail are pink Komen bags, mailings, ribbons, blah, blah. Originally, I thought the whole breast cancer branding thing – the slow, steady marketing to make Komen ubiquitous with the term – altogether creepy. Yes, do some good but get rich off the ills of others while doing so. Anyway, my wife saw this yesterday and flipped out. The donation we were going to make with some of our tax return? Not happining now. She blasted them on Facebook only to find that the BC groups, along with friends, have already shunned Komen. Wouldn’t be suprised if this wingnut is shit-canned soon, and in a very public manner. Misplaced ideology is one thing, but cold, hard cash, and its flowing supply is quite another, and it’s the true god.
Funny thing, Susan Komen was someone who supported woman’s reproductive rights.
And I’d be remiss not to say that my wife is recovering well and the long term prognosis looks excellent. And our baby boy is heathy and fat! 🙂
I’m so happy for you VC! My heart sank when I started to read your comment. All the best to you and your wife.
More importantly… when do I get to see the baby?
VC: Thanks for sharing the good news, and your wife’s views. Best wishes to all three of you (and your other kids if you have any).
Here’s a great article from the Atlantic demonstrating that the new ‘policy’ was established to specifically take away PP funding:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/top-susan-g-komen-official-resigned-over-planned-parenthood-cave-in/252405/
The ‘policy’?: “…The charity’s newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities.”
So, far SGK has applied this to only one grant recipient: Planned Parenthood.
Who will be the first corporate sponsor to jump ship?
P – give a shout whenever youre around. If you go to kids anytime soon, we can walk him over. It’ll be nice to see you and your family again!
Thanks, Geez! We appriciate the kind wishes.
I’ll email you soon, VC!
VC – glad to hear your wife is doing well and your son is “healthy and fat.”
The whole SGK thing reminds me of Dan Pallotta and Pallotta TeamWorks, which started the AIDS Rides back in 1994 and later the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day. Many of us who started doing the rides believed in the cause and drank the kool-aid Pallotta gave us. We turned a blind eye to the money that was not going to the charities, but enabled Pallotta to build a very nice mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Eventually, the charities broke ties with PTW and the company collapsed. PTW sued anyone who created an AIDS Ride type event and even sued Avon.
Thanks – making money off of tragedy is a constant, it seems. And I am pretty damn sure folks like Mitt have no problem with it.
I’ll keep an eye out for it, P!
Look up Komen on http://www.guidestar.com this is the Mmody’s of the non profit world. In the past 48 hours they have dropped from 4 stars to 1 of 5. This wil be devastating to them as it should be.