Stop Giving Money to Susah G. Komen for the Cure, and tell everyone else you know to do the same.

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Komen collects donations and uses the money to help with cancer. In the past, huge chunks of money were donated to Planned Parenthood to help pay for breast exams and other breast cancer related services at Planned Parenthood facilities.

Then, Republican Cliff Stearns, a Congressional representative from Florida, launched an inquirey against Planned Parenthood. This investigation is widely regarded as a senseless political move, a mean spirited attack on women and women’s health, and a bunch of crap.

Apparently, and the details are largely secret at this time, various Right Wing Christian forces went to work to pressure Koman into dropping its funding for Planned Parenthood, and Komen dutifully caved. They either made up or pulled out of their non-profit asses a rule that said that they can’t fund agencies that are under investigation by local, state, or federal agencies. Then, they interpreted this sham inquirey in Congress as an “investigation by a federal agency” which it is not.

And, thus, under the guise of following their sanctimonious rule, Komen stopped funding help for cancer screening and other breast cancer related services to countless poor and underprivileged women.

What can you do?

Then, after you’ve made yourself feel all good and like you’ve done something, actually DO SOMETHING:

  • Go here and make an emergency donation to Planned Parenthood to make up the shortfall.
  • Use the share buttons down below or any other means you’d like to let everyone you know that Komen has jumped the shark and will no longer be regarded as a valid charity by anyone who does not hate women.

What are you sitting there staring at this blog post for? GET MOVING ON THIS! NAO!!!11!!

Many of the details known so far are reported here.

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26 thoughts on “Stop Giving Money to Susah G. Komen for the Cure, and tell everyone else you know to do the same.

  1. Thanks for the recap and the links. Posted support on PP page, posted a rebuke on the SBK page and then donated to PP using the link you provided.
    I’ll be on the lookout for more ways I can contribute to the effort to stem the tidal wave of anti-woman activities that has been washing over this country.

  2. I second Ms. Cutter. I’m almost certainly going to get breast cancer given my family history and when someone gives me a pink bear with a pink ribbon, I’m going to shit bricks.

    Planned Parenthood, with actions that actually empower women, is a million times better than an organization that uses fluffy empowerment language at the expense of women’s dignity and adulthood. Plus, you know, PP actually does something with proven impact.

  3. Nepenthe, there’s also a lot of cancer in my family history, though not entirely breast cancer. I have relatives who are into the whole fundraising thing; I’ve sent them some of the Ehrenreich and Sulik articles, but they’re somewhere between apolitical and conservative, so I don’t think it made a dent.

  4. They have also threatened to sue other groups that have used the “for the cure” phrase.

    They have also greatly distorted cancer research and awareness. Breast cancer is NOT the leading cause of cancer deaths among women, but you would probably never know that. The rate for prostate cancer are about the same as those for breast cancer, but how many light blue ribbons do you see?

  5. Jim:

    The rate for prostate cancer are about the same as those for breast cancer, but how many light blue ribbons do you see?

    When men acquire a centuries-long history of being neglected by medical research because women are considered the “default,” and also because men bear children and that’s considered more important than the health of the men themselves, come back and whine at us about blue ribbons.

  6. Oh, and yeah, you should talk to a friend of mine who had a heart attack in her late 30s. She’s involved with an organization promoting awareness of heart disease in women, which is frequently overloooked because women tend to present with different symptoms than men do. She gets no end of “WAHT ABOUT TEH MENZ?!??!” whining from guys who can’t stand it that their precious selves aren’t the center of attention 100% of the time.

  7. “When men acquire a centuries-long history of being neglected by medical research because women are considered the “default,” and also because men bear children and that’s considered more important than the health of the men themselves, ”

    But … but …. then they would be WOMEN, so how would we know?

  8. With Planned Parenthood being the number one provider of abortions in the U.S. and the known link between abortion and breast cancer, I found it rather counterproductive for Komen to be subsidizing Planned Parenthood anyway.

  9. I’d like some names of organizations which are large donors to Susan G. Komen. I think we could persuade some corporations not to donate to SGK this year, but to donate directly to the PP emergency fund instead.

    SGK has – apparently – been taken over by the anti-abortion, anti-birth-control hateful fundies. There’s almost no chance that we can persuade them to rejoin the 21st century. But maybe we can persuade their secular supporters to dry up the support and switch to the organization which does provide genuine health care for women: Planned Parenthood.

  10. Luke @ # 15 – You do know (don’t you? well, you will by the end of this sentence) that Google search results are a (crude) measure of popularity, with no fact-checking involved at all – right?

    hotshoe @ # 18: SGK has – apparently – been taken over by the anti-abortion, anti-birth-control hateful fundies.

    Alas, ’tis true:

    Karen Handel, who was endorsed by Sarah Palin during her unsuccessful bid for governor of Georgia in 2010, has been the Foundation’s Senior Vice President for Public Policy since April 2011. During her gubernatorial candidacy, she ran on an anti-choice platform, vowing that if elected, she’d defund Planned Parenthood.

  11. With Planned Parenthood being the number one provider of abortions in the U.S. and the known link between abortion and breast cancer, I found it rather counterproductive for Komen to be subsidizing Planned Parenthood anyway.

    There is no link between abortion and breast cancer. That’s a myth promoted by cranks.

    http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/10/abortion_and_breast_cancer_the_chicago_t.php
    http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/02/the_journal_of_american_physicians_and_s.php

  12. Luke – you’ll need to concentrate hard for this one, ok?

    Abortion (spontaneous or induced) is no different than ending a pregnancy by giving birth. The uterus is emptied, and the hormone levels drop. Got it?

    OK. That would mean that anyone who’d ever conceived would get breast cancer, regardless of the outcome of that conception. Spontaneous abortion, induced abortion, premature birth and at term birth would all lead to breast cancer.

    The same goes for any other false claims about abortion.

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