Seconds ago — the Komen Foundation just announced it is reinstating funding to Planned Parenthood. Here is the statement Komen just released:
“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.
The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.
Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.”
You know what happened — the CEOs of the corporations sponsoring Komen merchandising deals have been having words with Komen execs.
Update: Personally, I doubt Konen will ever get all the toothpaste back in the tube. This episode is likely to leave a sour taste in a lot of mouths.
Notice that a lot of the backlash came from Komen affiliates. Seriously, women who are activists on women’s health care issues are likely to be pro-choice. Duh, Komen Foundation.
Update: When I heard the news I had just finished reading this interview by Sarah Kliff of Americans United for Life President Charmaine Yoest, whom Kliff argues was a behind-the-scenes influence in the de-funding decision.
Behold the Fail:
Americans United for Life has, for the past year, aggressively pushed Congress to end Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. It has also drafted model legislation that states can use to bar abortion providers from receiving federal funds. Nine states have passed such laws, although the Obama administration has blocked their implementation.
Yoest hopes that the Komen decision is the beginning of a similar push, on the private side, to curtail Planned Parenthood’s funding, although she does not expect other funders to get on board overnight.
“We’ll be looking at their other supporters,†she said. “Let’s be honest, they’ve been very fashionable amongst a certain philanthropic set. I hope that this is a beginning of people re-looking at associations with the nation’s largest abortion provider.â€
Probably not, but it might cause people to keep Yoest at arm’s length.
Update: One of the comments coming from right-wingers is that Planned Parenthood doesn’t do mammograms, just referrals. According to a news story by the CBS Pittsburgh affiliate, the referrals also included vouchers to pay for the mammorgrams, and Komen was providing the money that Planned Parenthood was using for the vouchers. So cutting off Planned Parenthood really does amount of cutting off access to mammograms, even if the mammograms are not being done at Planned Parenthood.
I think this is only going to go from really bad to super big time ugly for Komen. In addition to all those supporters who left and are never going back, now Komen has dumped on all those people who donated in support of the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Looks to me like the Komen pink bubble has burst.
We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
Wanna bet?
I’d like to know how and why aggressive Repuke ideologues were installed in high positions in a women’s health charity to begin with.
Let’s hope this scares off similar organizations from hiring such ideological hacks in future.
Mike,
I’m getting the impression Komen has been degenrating for some time into a “professional” charity – it really seems like it’s becoming one of those self-enriching, self-promoting organizations. Sadly, reminicent of many wingnut organizations as is.
After this, I will never contribute to, or purchase, anything with a SG Komen pink-ribbon associated with it.
Their statement was a panicky attempt to cover for a short-sighted, epically stupid, and disastrous decision based on Conservative ideologues they allowed in their midst.
I hope other charities learn from this, and are careful who appears on their boards, and who is hired, to administer their cause, their money, and to whom it goes.
It’s suicide to let the Jesus Barbarians anywhere near, let alone in, your gate.
Dominionst Christians don’t care about YOUR cause – the care about THEIRS! And they think nothing of using yours to further theirs.
I hope that Komen, once a charitable powerhouse, is goin’, goin’, gone!
Let them be a lesson.
I feel that, even if the Komen organization had been honest throughout (which I seriously doubt -note the tweet by the new Komen VP about Liberals), that the play in the right media has been enough to ruin the entire enterprise in thousands of minds. I know I will never again support Komen in any way. So much for allowing politics in to an endeavor which needs to be politics blind.
I saw a version of the statement in which there was a thank you “for the outpouring of support” they’d received. This is, to me, pure dog whistle. “Thank you to all the pro-life groups who sent us messages of support, we agree, but look at us, being bullied by the liberal media!”
I know that to some, this sounds like I’m inferring, based upon shaky evidence, but here’s the thing.
If I make a mistake, I don’t thank those who supported me over the time while I’d made my mistake. First, I thank those people who showed me I was wrong. I might then also thank those who supported me uncritically – but the people who support you (emphasize this) *uncritically* are not your real friends. The real friends are the people who support you but won’t back down when you’re being stupid. (They might shut up – but they won’t back down.)
Shrug. I could be wrong, I suppose, but I really don’t think I am. Komen wants this off the front page, so they can keep marketing their pink-ribbon-of-guilt.
I won’t be supporting Komen ever again either. But, I really grow weary of the rightwing nutjobs who work to take Federal dollars away from an entity they don’t approve of. I don’t approve of war; yet, I am told I can’t withhold my taxes for that. I don’t want my tax dollars going to abstinence-only programs because they do not work; but, somehow, that doesn’t matter. I think we need to start doing what the rightwingers do and stop having our liberal dollars used for rightwing issues. And, then, there’s the fact that my tax dollars pay the salaries of Congressmen who work to negatively impact my life, my health.
Agreed, Bonnie