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February 3, 2012 in Nation/World
Komen charity responds as uproar over cuts widens
Leaders insist decision wasn’t politically motivated
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel waves to supporters during an election-night party in Atlanta in 2010. According to a source with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen headquarters in Dallas, Handel, vice president for public policy, was a driving force behind Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision this week to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood. Komen officials denied she had a major role.
(Full-size photo)
NEW YORK – The renowned breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure faced an escalating backlash Thursday over its decision to cut breast screening grants to Planned Parenthood. Some of Komen’s local affiliates are openly upset, including all seven in California, and at least one top official has quit, reportedly in protest.
Meanwhile, Komen has been deluged with negative emails and Facebook postings, accusing it of knuckling under to pressure from anti-abortion groups, since the Associated Press reported earlier this week that it was halting grants that Planned Parenthood affiliates used for breast exams and related services. The grants totaled $680,000 last year.
Planned Parenthood has been heartened by an outpouring of support in response to the cutoff. Besides $400,000 in smaller donations from 6,000 people, it is receiving $250,000 from a family foundation in Dallas and a $250,000 pledge announced Thursday by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to match future donations.
In Washington, 26 U.S. senators – all Democrats except for independent Bernie Sanders, of Vermont – signed a letter calling on Komen to reconsider its decision.
“It would be tragic if any woman – let alone thousands of women – lost access to these potentially lifesaving screenings because of a politically motivated attack,” the senators wrote.
Komen’s top leaders, in their first news conference since the controversy erupted, denied Planned Parenthood’s assertion that the decision was driven by pressure from anti-abortion groups.
“We don’t base our funding decisions … on whether one side or the other will be pleased,” said Komen’s founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker, depicting the criticism as a mischaracterization of the charity’s goals and mission.
Komen has said the decision stemmed from newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations under investigation – affecting Planned Parenthood because of an inquiry by a Republican congressman acting with encouragement from anti-abortion activists.
Brinker said Thursday that there were additional factors, notably changes in the types of breast-health service providers it wanted to support. However, she said, grants would continue this year to three of the 19 Planned Parenthood affiliates – in Denver, California’s Orange County, and Waco, Texas – because they served clientele with few other breast-screening options.
A source with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen’s headquarters in Dallas gave a different account, saying the grant-making criteria were adopted with the deliberate intention of targeting Planned Parenthood. The criteria’s impact on Planned Parenthood and its status as the focus of government investigations were highlighted in a memo distributed to Komen affiliates in December.
According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, a driving force behind the move was Karen Handel, who was hired by Komen last year as vice president for public policy after losing a campaign for governor in Georgia in which she stressed her anti-abortion views and frequently denounced Planned Parenthood.
Brinker, in an interview with MSNBC, said Handel didn’t have a significant role in the policy change.
The source also said that Mollie Williams, who had been Komen’s director of community health programs, had resigned in protest over the grant cutoff.
Williams, in an email, said she could not comment on her departure for reasons of professional confidentiality, but she was clear about her views.
“I have dedicated my career to fighting for the rights of the marginalized and underserved,” she wrote. “And I believe it would be a mistake for any organization to bow to political pressure and compromise its mission.”
Williams said she was saddened by the rift because she admired both Komen and Planned Parenthood.
Among Komen’s affiliates, there were clear signs of discomfort with the decision. The Connecticut branch received scores of supportive emails after expressing frustration about the cutoffs and good will toward Planned Parenthood.
All seven Komen affiliates in California, in a joint letter to their congressional delegation, said they were “strongly opposed” to the policy change and were working to overturn it.
“Our commitment to our mission is unwavering,” the letter said. “This is a misstep in that journey and … we will do whatever it takes to do what is right for the health of women and men in California.”
In New York City, a member of the Komen affiliate’s medical advisory board said she would resign if the decision wasn’t changed soon.
“Komen is a wonderful organization and does tremendous things for women, but this is straying from their mission,” said Dr. Kathy Plesser, a radiologist. “It’s sad.”
The board of the Arkansas affiliate issued a statement noting that the decision was made at Komen headquarters “without input from affiliates,” and called for the new policy to be changed.
“We hope Komen national will reverse its position on granting to organizations under investigation because we feel decisions of this nature should be made only after the investigation is complete,” the statement said.
The American Association of University Women, in protest over Komen’s decision, said it was scrapping plans to offer a Komen Race for the Cure as one of the activities at its upcoming National Conference for College Women Student Leaders.
According to Planned Parenthood, its health centers performed more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years, including nearly 170,000 as a result of Komen grants.
Though comments posted on Komen’s Facebook page seemed to be mostly critical of the grant decision, Brinker said at her news conference that donations to the charity had increased since Tuesday.
She also said there were other organizations receiving Komen grants, in addition to Planned Parenthood, that might be adversely affected by the new criteria about investigations, but she did not identify them.
© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Stocks plummet as outlook in Europe dims 
greenlibertarian on February 03 at 1:05 a.m.
Blowback’s a bee-yatch.
polistra on February 03 at 3:20 a.m.
This is a perfect demonstration of O’Sullivan’s Law: All national non-profit organizations are hard-line leftist, regardless of the wishes of their members or local branches.
Most of the time we don’t get to see WHY this is true; we just assume it’s a groupthink phenomenon. Attending the same cocktail parties, etc.
Nope, there’s another side to it. In this incident we can finally see the whips and chains that are applied when a national organization dares to deviate by even one semicolon from the latest Maoist doctrine. It ain’t pretty.
oneanddone on February 03 at 4:44 a.m.
Komen has gotten to be a fairly aggressive, naziesque organization. Certainly they use much of what they take in wisely but they also treat every aspect of what they consider their brand to be sacrosanct. Much like Apple, come close to anything they consider their own and they will loose the hounds. This is a PR nightmare and no amount of wishy-washy will fix it.
The_Seer on February 03 at 7:40 a.m.
pollutestruth: “All national non-profit organizations are hard-line leftist, regardless of the wishes of their members or local branches.”
Really? Citizens United? All the Super Pacs and various right wing whacko groups funding the GOP primaries?
The reportage of this event last evening on the PBS Newshour stated Komen’s decision wasn’t based in ideology but in a desire to cut out “middlemen” in their ufnding strategy. PP only screens patients and provides breast health care education and then refers them to other providers for actual health care services. Komen wants those who receive their funds to conduct all of those services under one roof.
nottored on February 03 at 8:23 a.m.
Those who want to support planned parenthood should do so.
Those who want to support breast cancer organizations should do so.
Why would my support for a breast cancer organization go to an organization that i object to, for providing procedures that i object to? Any money to planned parenthoood also helps the
procedures that I object to.
tomnsahl on February 03 at 8:28 a.m.
Breaking news - Komen just reversed the decision!! :))
nottored on February 03 at 8:31 a.m.
so they can’t even stand firm in a decision?
silverlake89 on February 03 at 8:45 a.m.
I see Komen reversed its decision. Guess that means my family doesn’t have to walk this year or any other year in the future. Wish I could get my money back for the pink ribbon I have hanging in my car, correction, “had” hanging in my car. Planned Parenthood will also never have my support again after this.
PlanB on February 03 at 8:47 a.m.
I’d like to eliminate funding for law enforcement because once I got a parking ticket.
nslopeofw on February 03 at 8:48 a.m.
Funny how this article claims that Komen buckled under the pressure from right wing groups, and that is somehow bad, yet the entire article is about all the pressure from the left, which is OK, because its not the right doing it.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 03 at 9:30 a.m.
^ Whether they buckled under pressure from the right or left — or, in this case, in what order — is not so important. The effect of the buckling is more important, i.e., depriving women of a major source for breast health information. As far as I can see, that was what the lefties were objecting to.
That said, nottored at 8:23 AM has a point: if you want to support Planned Parenthood, support Planned Parenthood; if you want to support Komen, support Komen. Komen clearly wants to withdraw from their position as an umbrella organization that channels funds to other foundations, so contributors should no longer assume that their Komen dollars are going to to partly to other programs that Komen has historically supported.
To me, it looks more like the Bank of America debit-card-fee kerfuffle: whoops, terrible idea, everybody hates it, let’s back away and find another way to deal with the pressures that led us to that decision.
P.S. Seer — I saw the NewsHour segment too. The fact that the Komen people didn’t go public with that cutting-out-the-middleman motivation until after the public outcry was in full voice makes me suspect that it wasn’t actually their [main] motivation but something they came up with to try to make themselves look less weaselly.
nottored on February 03 at 9:44 a.m.
If Koman wants to get out of distributing money, but can’t even be honest about it, maybe another breat cancer group should start asking for money.
DB1640 on February 03 at 9:51 a.m.
I will no longer give money to the Komen organization or attend functions that benefit them, and there are many in Spokane. What a devious organization. I certainly was not aware of their connection with Planned Parenthood.
johnclarke on February 03 at 10:20 a.m.
nslopeofw on February 03 at 8:48 a.m.
Funny how this article claims that Komen buckled under the pressure from right wing groups, and that is somehow bad, yet the entire article is about all the pressure from the left, which is OK, because its not the right doing it.
What is even funnier is how you take any topic and blame it on “the left”. Actually, it’s not really funny - it’s boring. The real issue is the foundation created a BS rule stating any group under “congressional investigation” can’t get Komen funds. Cliff Stearns (R) and Tea Party member is at the heart of the Planned Parenthood witch hunt. I think I will be making a donation to Planned Parenthood today, in honor of the religious right wing nut bags.
greenlibertarian on February 03 at 10:37 a.m.
Parade of ignorance I see here.
oneanddone on February 03 at 4:44 a.m.
Komen has gotten to be a fairly aggressive, naziesque organization.
Really, oneanddone, it’s NAZIesque? Do you know ANYTHING about Nazism?
My god, the utter depraved ignorance on display. Pathetic.
silverlake89 on February 03 at 10:41 a.m.
“The effect of the buckling is more important, i.e., depriving women of a major source for breast health information. As far as I can see, that was what the lefties were objecting to.”
That is 100% false. Komen raises funds and delivers them to various agencies and sometimes directly to hospitals that provide breast health services. PP was just one of many.
My donations will go directly to some of the other charities, Komen and PP have both been dropped from my support.
The_Seer on February 03 at 11:58 a.m.
silverlake babbled: “My donations will go directly to some of the other charities, Komen and PP have both been dropped from my support.”
I’m sure they’ll both be financially crippled.
Bagger, please.
nslopeofw on February 03 at 12:44 p.m.
JC-
Whats really funny is that you would call me on something like that. You are one of the biggest “blame the republican” propagandist on this site.
Damn, that was funny, thanks for the laugh. 8-)
JayNW on February 03 at 2:34 p.m.
The bogus outcry from the left on this issue is laughable. the ONLY thing P P does in regard to womens breast health are the inital exam that any women gets during a typical check up. Then,if they suspect there is an issue, they refer them to a dr who actually performs mammograms. PP does not do mammorgrams, nor do they do any treatment, conduct research or anything else to help in the fight against breast cancer.
Their servics were not going to change w/ Komen pulling funds, this was not going to cause more women to get breast cancer.
Also, there has never been any evidenced produced that the funds from Komen actually went directly to fund extra breast exams, education or anything else releated to the prevention or treatment of Breast Cancer.
Wouldn’t it be better if Komen donated to an actual Cancer reserach center, treatment facility or something along those lines??
JayNW on February 03 at 2:35 p.m.
Excuse the typos, obviously way too much coffee today and I can’t type. :)
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 03 at 4:08 p.m.
Looks to me like silverlake @ 10:41 a.m. doesn’t actually disagree with me.
Not being a woman, I might be wrong about this, but I’ve been given to understand that a lot of women go to PP for checkups that they couldn’t otherwise afford, and then, if the PP breast-checker thinks there might be a problem, get referred to specialists that they wouldn’t otherwise get referred to. So it seems like helping to fund that initial checkup activity would make sense for a charity whose reason for existence is fighting breast cancer.
JayNW’s remark “Wouldn’t it be better if Komen donated to an actual Cancer reserach center, treatment facility or something along those lines??” makes sense too. However, the fact that the investigation was the reason SGK gave at first makes it look [to me] like they were indeed buckling to right-wing pressure, and came up with the more-direct-contribution excuse as a way to make it look like that was not the case.
If SGK wants to make a principled stand about not contributing to organizations that are under investigation, or not contributing to organizations that perform abortions, then there’s no reason they shouldn’t do that, and accept the consequences as the price of their integrity. Surely there are lots of people out there who are against abortion and also against breast cancer. Maybe some of those people currently don’t donate to SGK for precisely that reason, and would begin donating if SGK changed their policy.
silverlake89 on February 03 at 5:18 p.m.
Bruce ~ You are partially correct; PP is one of the places that indigent women can get breast exams at low or no cost. It is not the only place and the Komen grants were paying for the mammos that were performed elsewhere. PP was acting as a third party but I know in this state they are definately not the only entity that receives these grants. The patients would simply have to get their services elsewhere until PP was cleared in the investigation.
When Komen originally stated they would hold off on funding until PP was cleared they also made the caveat that certain PP’s would continue to receive grant money if there were not other providers in the area who could pick up these patients.
There was not ever an indication from Komen that the funding for women would stop; only that the funding to PP would be stopped and only in areas where women had access to other providers.
Arbeautis on February 03 at 6:23 p.m.
Stand before the Lord and explain that you voted for a representative that supported abortion. We ALL will be held accountable for our “choices”
Diana on February 03 at 8:15 p.m.
Key word, Arbeutis = choice.
Stay out of mine.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 03 at 8:25 p.m.
Stand before the Lord and explain why you wore blue shoes with brown corduroy.
greenlibertarian on February 03 at 10:22 p.m.
LOL Bruce.
Still, it’s funny when the low information belligerents bleat occasionally.
In a wry, liberal snooty, high culture, New Yorker sort of way, I say deliberately as bait…
tic tic tic.
silverlake89 on February 04 at 2:17 p.m.
Key word= choice.
Stay out of Komens.