Susan G. Komen Cancer Apologizes and now will Fund Planned Parenthood

Statement falls short of the truth! Will Susan G. Komen ever be the same? The spin falls short for progressives like me and I will have a hard time trusting their motives again… oh what a shame!

by Melanie Nathan, February 03, 2012

Smiling faces, pink T-Shirts and pink balloons and the festive atmosphere of a race for the cure – will that ever be the same? Three days after pulling its funding for cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation on Friday, responding to a firestorm, apologized for the decision and announced it is reversing course.

The damage done to the non-profit group will resonate for years to come, as people will turn away in disgust every time asked to contribute or participate. How can the group win trust back? While damage control prevails and the hope is the focus remain on the good work, it is difficult to ignore that but for the outcry, this group could have got away with what was clearly a political attack on planned parenthood.

The Susan G. Komen Cancer Awareness Group has spent over a billion dollars through the years funding research and other important grants. Recently the organization decided to withdraw funding for Planned Parenthood. The group had helped underwrite cancer screenings for over 170,000 lower-income women in the last five years. They were planning to cease the funding because Planned Parenthood is under investigation in a right wing Republican House witch hunt that screams anti-choice attack!

After their decision was announced this week, three top officials resigned from the charity in protest, and 26 U.S. Senators wrote to the group beseeching them to reverse the decision. New York’s Mayor Bloomberg was so incensed he decided to write his own quarter million dollar check to the New York Planned Parenting group that would be impacted.

Dr. Kathy Plesser, a Manhattan radiologist on the medical advisory board of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s New York chapter, said she plans to resign from her position unless Komen reverses its decision to pull grant money from Planned Parenthood.

“I’m a physician and my interest is women’s health, and I am disturbed by Komen’s decision because I am a very strong advocate for serving under-served women,” Plesser told The Huffington Post. “Eliminating this funding will mean there’s no place for these women to go. Where are these women to go to have a mammography? Do they not deserve to have mammography?”

The press blasted away with a clear stab at the group for its overtly conservative political persuasion with a Republican Bush appointed ambassador at their Helm, who once ran for Governor, and now forced to resign from the group.  C’mon.. it does not take a genius to see the reasoning for its retraction of the funds was clearly political.

This the nation’s largest breast cancer charity, announced only on Tuesday, according to HUFFO,  that it had adopted a new rule against partnering with organizations that are under investigation, and that it would therefore sever ties with Planned Parenthood, which is currently under investigation in Congress. The groups that prompted that investigation are anti-abortion advocacy organizations that have long criticized Planned Parenthood, primarily a women’s health and family planning organization, over the fact that some of its clinics offer abortions.

However in less than a week after the so called ” new rule,”  this statement appears under the penship of Komen founder Nancy G. Brinker the group,  providing a retraction of its funding decision and issued the following statement:- (spot the contradiction!)

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.

It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women. We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.

Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work. We ask for the public’s understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve.

We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.

It seems rather odd that the spin would be on the “bad policy”  of the group, a policy which was apparently a new one and not embedded in age old guidelines as this retraction seems to attempt to spin!  If the HUFFO is correct that it is indeed a new policy to severe ties with groups under investigation, then to my way of thinking the policy was made as a direct attack against Planned Parenthood.

Susan G. Komen should come out and add to the statement that it was under political leadership and that was a mistake; and only then with an honest assertion will it have a chance at recapturing people like me!

Much of the impetus and fundraising  by Susan G. Komen has been in the hands if trusting survivors of breast cancer.  Many of whom I imagine favor a more progressive attitude toward health care in general, and many believe conservative  politics kill rather than save.

The damage control may require a great deal more than this and to regain its stature, Susan G. Komen should consider leadership that reflects the clearly progressive aspect of those who have suffered breast cancer and its impact.

What I am noting is that to regain trust of supporters  the group which became political by appointing a Bush ambassador to its leadership, will have to remain political now that she has left the group. BUT  they will have to remain political wearing a different political hat.  Only thereafter will they be in a position to draw down on the politicization of the group.

Shall we call it a balancing act?

Melanie Nathan can be contacted at [email protected] and twitter @melanienathan1