Why Komen defunded Planned Parenthood

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/why-komen-defunded-planned-parenthood/2012/01/31/gIQAACW0fQ_blog.html

Why Komen defunded Planned Parenthood
Posted by Sarah Kliff at 06:16 PM ET, 01/31/2012

snip//

Planned Parenthood has been at the center of a lot of heated political battles lately. Most center on whether the group, as an abortion provider, should receive government funds for other services it provides, such as offering contraceptives and preventive screenings.

So far, plans to curtail Planned Parenthood’s funds within government have been stymied. Both the Democrat-controlled Senate and President Obama, for instance, stood in the way of House Republicans’ attempts to end Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. Similarly, when a handful of states passed laws that would have barred abortion providers (such as Planned Parenthood) from receiving federal dollars through Medicaid, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services stepped in. The agency has warned states that they could lose all of their Medicaid funding if they implemented such a policy. Those defensive moves have allowed Planned Parenthood to weather various political attacks.

In some ways, the Komen decision isn’t particularly surprising. The group has been under pressure from anti-abortion rights groups not to fund Planned Parenthood. It also hired a vice president last year who had previously advocated for the group’s defunding in her run for Georgia governor. With a congressional investigation underway, Komen pulled its support. And when private institutions move to cut off Planned Parenthood’s funding there’s not much Democrats can do.The only possible backstop here might be pressure from Planned Parenthood supporters pushing back in the opposite direction.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I just got an email from Planned Parenthood about this issue.

I am really appalled at Komen for defunding them. Both of these groups are trying to help poor women get mammograms to find and cure breast cancer.

By defunding PP, only the poor women will suffer. And this is inexcusable.

Abortions and mammograms are separate issues. How do they not see this?

[jeff47]

3. Because to anti-abortion people, abortion is the only issue

It's also why abortion will never be completely banned. They're useful idiots for the right, and an outright ban energizes the left.

[ProSense]

2. Right

In some ways, the Komen decision isn’t particularly surprising. The group has been under pressure from anti-abortion rights groups not to fund Planned Parenthood. It also hired a vice president last year who had previously advocated for the group’s defunding in her run for Georgia governor. With a congressional investigation underway, Komen pulled its support. And when private institutions move to cut off Planned Parenthood’s funding there’s not much Democrats can do.The only possible backstop here might be pressure from Planned Parenthood supporters pushing back in the opposite direction.

...and instead of owning up to the move, they hid behind House Republicans' bullshit investigations.

[GodlessBiker]

4. Komen has lost its way.

[warrior1]

5. they've lost my support

I will give my money to another org. I'm going to return my t-shirt from my last walk. They can shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

[MH1]

8. Please give to Planned Parenthood, or to an organization that directly funds

abortions for women who can't afford them.

[gratuitous]

6. Note to Komen

I've heard that some doctors who perform mammograms may be doing perfectly legal things in furtherance of women's health care. You should cut off all funding to doctors who perform mammograms who aren't engaged in illegal activity! Just to be safe, you pathetic little willow trees.

[MH1]

7. Help me out - I'm looking for a word / phrase ...

(no, not 'scum of the earth' - that kind comes easy)

Komen is a one of many groups that have/are these large, highly visible, so-called 'non-profit' campaigns / presences / corporate behemoths. I've often wondered, and sometimes heard it discussed academically, to what extent do they exist not so much for their ostensible 'cause' but rather to perpetuate their own existence and pay the reasonably high salaries of their executives?

I'm not saying that all of them do that. I'm just saying that I've often suspected that SOME of them are like that.

I'm looking for a succinct word or phrase to describe that type of organization and/or activity. I'm sure I've heard something used in the forementioned academic discussions, but I can't come up with it.

Anyone know or have an idea?

(and back to Komen, this increases my sense that they belong in that category. They will not see another dime from me. If they sponsor a jeans day at work I will NOT participate.)

[warrior1]

9. want to but a bet on how long it takes

for this foundation crumbles? Either they do, or they will take back this ugly attack on PP.

[monmouth]

11. The term "non-profit" is always suspect to me...n/t

[GoCubsGo]

13. Cowards. n/t

[MH1]

17. That too, but the word I'm looking for is something like 'Parasites'.

Only preferably more specific to so-called 'charities' who support themselves on the misery of others. And would not want to put themselves out of business.

[jeff47]

16. You don't need to suspect with Komen

50% of their money funds "raising awareness". I find it hard to believe there's a woman in the US who don't know breast cancer exists, so "raising awareness" is basically advertising for Komen.

[CTyankee]

10. Another reason that I say that Planned Parenthood simply MUST get out there in the face

of all this antichoice stuff. I used to work for PP in CT and tried to get them to expand their PR but they wouldn't do it outside their own little world. We were all literally talking to each other.

This has got to stop. We have got to regain the hearts and minds of Americans again, which at one time (when we had guts) we did have.

But PP retreated behind their safe castle walls and sat the whole thing out and now they complain that they aren't getting the funding!

I think PP should take on the RW in this country the way OWS, the WI demonstrators and the gay rights community have taken them on!

Enough is enough! We either get stronger or we get weaker...

[KT2000]

14. Planned Parenthood

had tremendous support from my generation (I am 60) because they were the only ones who CARED about women's health - especially for low income, young unmarried women. I am afraid the current generation does not realize how it was before they came along. I really think it has to be women who stand up for Planned Parenthood.
I would suggest a "strike" - no sex until PP is funded enough to take care of all women who need their services - for whatever that woman thinks she needs.

[CTyankee]

18. While emotionally I would enthusiastically agree, you and I both know that's not going to

happen. What CAN and SHOULD happen is that PP, both nationally and regionally, should get out of its low, defensive crouch and wage a huge PR war, including going on TV news and talk shows, and getting the message out to the public, rather than depending on their "friends in high places" behind the scenes.

When I was at PPC we talked to liberal suburban women who told us that the only time they hear about PP is around abortion, not about the other services the organization, such as education, that PP provides. We have let the other side frame the organization the way they want it to look because we refused to engage in vigorous public debate. I saw this happen again and again.

Tough times call for tough measures...

[BumRushDaShow]

12. K&R

Seems like an attempt to divide the women's vote.

[KT2000]

15. Komen needs to go

they are an institution and operate that way. The spend money searching for and suing organizations that use the phrase "A CURE FOR" because apparently they own it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/komen-foundation-charities-cure_n_793176.html

They dreamed up a fundraising event that has women who had cancer out running and walking for days - health insurance is a requirement and first aid tents along the way. What a horrible thing to do to women who have been through enough already. Besides that - they have to guarantee that they will raise over $2,000.

I would love to know how much influence the corporate sponsors of Komen have on the kind of research they are dunding. How much of their research is investigating environmental causes?

Now they want their so-called charity to reflect the political views of their board members? Disgusting.