The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has contributed over $2 billion toward breast cancer research and awareness over the last 30 years. Some of this money has gone to Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive health and breast cancer screening services to women all across the country. During the last two years alone, the Komen Foundation has contributed more than $1 million to Planned Parenthood. But two days ago, the Komen Foundation infuriated women's health advocates when it announced that it was pulling its support of the organization.
The Komen Foundation says it held the funds because of a new policy of refusing grants to organizations that are under investigation by the government. Planned Parenthood supporters have attributed the change in policy instead to pressure on the Komen Foundation exerted by pro−life activists.
Even if we give the Komen Foundation the benefit of the doubt and assume it cut funding of its own volition, the decision is nonsensical. It is one thing to pull funding from an organization that has been indicted or convicted of a criminal act, but the congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood's alleged misuse of federal tax dollars is ongoing. Moreover, the investigation itself is suspect, since the accusations of misconduct originated with the staunchly pro−life National Right to Life organization and has been overseen by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R−Fla.), one of the most outspoken abortion opponents in all of Congress.
Regardless of the investigation's validity, no one has determined that Planned Parenthood is guilty of any wrongdoing, so the decision to defund the organization is unfair and premature.
The decision is especially ridiculous given that the money from the Komen Foundation was earmarked for breast cancer screenings, whereas the federal investigation concerns tax dollars that were allegedly used to fund abortions — a claim that Planned Parenthood adamantly denies.
Abortions comprise only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's services to women. The rest come in the form of cancer screenings, sex education, treatment for STDs, and other crucial health services. The breast cancer screenings that the Komen Foundation would have helped fund are irrefutably beneficial.
Women's health care options should not become a casualty of the political tug of war over the morality of abortion. All this decision accomplishes is to make it more difficult for women to receive quality care, and that doesn't help anyone.
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