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?
- Visit Planned Parenthood’s Facebook page and say something nice.
- Then go to any one of the countless Komen facebook pages (like this one or this one) and let them know what you think. Normally I would say “respectfully” but I think I won’t.
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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Funny, up until now your headline was what the anti-choicers were saying all the time…
I’ve never been a fan of the Komen Foundation, due to its promotion of what Gayle Sulik calls “breast cancer culture,” with its infantilization of women, its simplistic feel-good messages, and its glossing over any discussion of environmental carcinogens that corporate donors might find uncomfortable. Their dumping Planned Parenthood, sadly, validates my distrust.
I read about this on a different forum, and I’m so sad right now. 🙁
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.
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.
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.
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?
Jim:
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.
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.
“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?
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.
Luke, there is not a link between abortions and breast cancer. Anybody who wants to know more about that can check out this search from the “Skeptical Search Engine”: http://goo.gl/vry57
I’m really hoping Luke is Poe’s law in action.
The first result I get when searching on google indicates there is a link and one that has been known about for a long time. http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com
People who adopt the names of books of the New Testament as a pseudo often are.
Greg, what wild assumptions you are capable of…
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.
I made a donation. These services are too important to let disappear. I hope they can raise enough funds to keep them going.
This sounds like the sort of thing that would make for a change.org petition….
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:
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
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.
hotshoe #18: They weren’t taken over, just forced out of the closet because we’re finally waking up to how awful the Right really is.
Isn’t it an abomination for religious groups to decide the fate of pregnant women? Should they not be protected?!?