After it was announced that Susan G. Komen for the Cure would be ending its grants and donations to Planned Parenthood while the abortion giant was under investigation by Congress, Planned Parenthood and its allies went into action. They were so ferocious that Komen buckled under the pressure just two days later.
I think Jeanne Monahan, the Director for the Center for Human Dignity at FRC, said it best in her response to the reversal:
“The Susan G Komen Foundation made two policy changes this week to ensure money would be better spent to save women’s lives. The first policy change ensured that grants are more directly focused on results. Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms. The second new requirement is that Komen will not award money to organizations that are under federal investigation. Both of these policy decisions ensure money would be better spent to save women’s lives while also making Susan G. Komen abortion-neutral.
“It would be heartbreaking for women who suffer from breast cancer if Planned Parenthood has bullied Komen into loosening their higher standards. Women deserve the best. Komen should stay focused on saving lives, not supporting the nation’s largest abortion provider.
“It is truly unbelievable that the nation’s largest abortion provider has been able to take what has been considered one of America’s most well respected and beloved organizations and demonize it overnight for simply making their grants results-oriented. Planned Parenthood is putting their abortion ideology above the health of women,” concluded Monahan.
The silver lining in all this is that more pro-lifers around the nation are now looking more critically at not only Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but other organizations as well that send money to Planned Parenthood. The reality is that Planned Parenthood is an extremely powerful organization, with allies in very high places and massive funding to push their agenda very hard. We must continue the fight. Planned Parenthood is on the ropes but they are not going to simply go down for the count without fighting back.
Our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund have made public its report to Congress identifying waste, abuse and potential fraud by Planned Parenthood affiliates across the nation that may amount to multiple millions of dollars in wasted taxpayer money. CLICK HERE for the full news release and more information.
Finally, Karen Handel, senior vice president for public policy at Komen, announced her resignation on Monday.
“I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it,” Handel wrote, adding that she declined Komen’s offer of a severance package. Handel is a self-described pro-life Christian who became the main target of Planned Parenthood supporters as the funding dispute unfolded last week. She said she was actively engaged in efforts to cut off the grants and that the charity’s reversal hurt the core mission.