The Race to the Right

It is sickening to read the news about the "Race for the Cure" organization being taken over by anti-choice activists and cutting off their funding for Planned Parenthood.

Here is the background, from The Atlantic.

The nation's leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which has spent nearly $2 billion over the past 30 years for breast cancer education, health services, research, and advocacy, has announced that it will end its longtime partnership with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The announcement has sparked bitter debate among representatives from all concerned parties, highlighting the ongoing debate over abortion.

Planned Parenthood, currently the largest provider of reproductive health services in the United States, is widely known for helping women to obtain abortions and contraceptives. But those services, despite their high profile, account for only 38 percent (PDF) of the organization's work. And though Republicans often portray Planned Parenthood as strictly an abortion provider, using the phrase to incite anger among pro-life constituents and gain support for cuts to federal funding -- it comes largely through the Title X and Medicaid programs -- the fact is that the organization devotes most of its money and manpower to screening for breast, cervical, and testicular cancers; treating menopause; testing for sexually transmitted diseases; and more.

The money provided by Susan G. Komen for the Cure went to just a fraction -- about 19 according to one report -- of Planned Parenthood's more than 85 affiliates. And it was all -- roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before that -- used for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured women. Who Is Behind Susan G. Komen's Split From Planned Parenthood?

If you have been conscious at all you are aware that the Nutty Ones hate Planned Parenthood even more than they hate the Girl Scouts. Show a hand here -- how many women reading this got their birth control pills from Planned Parenthood when they were younger, or went to Planned Parenthood for a pap smear or a mastectomy? Yes, that would be almost all of you. Planned Parenthood provides health care for women who can't afford it otherwise. It is not only minority women but young women from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

And yes, they provide reproductive services. And yes, that includes contraception and abortion. Regardless of whether you yourself choose to have one, abortions are a legal medical procedure.

The question though is, why did this organization suddenly decide to cut off Planned Parenthood? The answer is chilling.

Late last year the organization adopted a new policy that said, in part, that any recipient of funding has to prove that it "is not currently under a local, state or federal formal investigation for financial or administrative impropriety or fraud."

That sounds reasonable, and you can imagine it passing through a committee or a vote without much argument. But it turns out that a crazy rightwing Florida Congressman, Cliff Stearns, had launched a kind of investigation in the House to determine whether Planned Parenthood had received federal funds to provide abortions. Remember, abortion is legal, he is not investigating whether they broke the law, but only if the government gave them support that went to abortion services.

So you take the new policy, point to this bogus investigation, and voila, no money for Planned Parenthood. Smooth move, nobody saw that coming.

But then the question is, why did they do that?

The only way to understand this is to say that Susan B. Komen was infiltrated by rightwing operatives. How does that happen? It happens by people not being vigilant.

Last year, Komen hired Karen Handel, an anti-choice conservative who had run for governor of Georgia, endorsed by Sarah Palin, promising as part of her platform to defund Planned Parenthood. She is now Senior Vice President for Policy at Komen.

RHRealitycheck explains further:

She was originally endorsed in her race by and received money from current GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, with whom some sources suggest she remains closely allied. Romney, in turn, has suddently become more anti-choice than thou and has promised a federal personhood amendment as well as to defund Planned Parenthood.The Cancerous Politics and Ideology of the Susan G. Komen Foundation

They have more:

Second, sitting on Komen's Advocacy Alliance Board is Jane Abraham, the General Chairman of the virulently anti-choice and anti-science Susan B. Anthony List and of its Political Action Committee. Among other involvements, Abraham helps direct the Nurturing Network, a global network of crisis pregnancy centers, organizations widely known for spreading ideology, misinformation and lies to women facing unintended pregnancy and to use both intimidation and coercion in the course of doing so. Also on the board of Nurturing Network is Maureen Scalia, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, no hero to women's rights and health.

Again, you wonder, how did people like this rise to the top of an organization that purportedly helps women?

RHRealitycheck:

Nationwide, Planned Parenthood doctors and nurses provide nearly 750,000 breast cancer screenings annually, offering risk assessments, breast exams, breast health information and education, and diagnostic and surgical referrals. Over the past five years, Planned Parenthood health centers have conducted nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams with funds from Komen, out of a total of more than four million clinical breast exams performed nationwide by Planned Parenthood clinics. Komen grants also supported more than 6,400 out of 70,000 mammogram referrals made by Planned Parenthood. These are affiliate-to-affiliate grants between Komen and Planned Parenthood sister oganizations at the state level.

A large share of the clients served at Planned Parenthood clinics are low-income African-American and Latina women. The National Cancer Institute identifies lack of access to early and effective screening for breast cancer (and hence lack of early treatment) as a primary reason that African-American and Latina women die of breast cancer at higher rates than the general population.

It is not clear how this will affect Planned Parenthood. Maybe it will not be all bad. Here's the Washington Post:

Donors reacting to the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood contributed $650,000 in 24 hours, nearly enough to replace last year’s Komen funding, Planned Parenthood executives said Wednesday.

The organization had raised more than $400,000 from more than 6,000 online donors as of Wednesday afternoon, compared with the 100 to 200 donations it receives on an average day, said Tait Sye, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He said donations were still coming in. Planned Parenthood says Komen decision causes donation spike

.
If I am reading the news right, Komen donated $680,000 to Planned Parenthood last year and $580,000 the year before. It made nearly that in a couple of days this week, in donations reacting to Komen's move.

I don't know why Komen hired these people and allowed this to happen. They let one monomaniacal fanatic in, and the bad drives out the good. You hate to see it, but the real lesson is that when you see this happening you have to act to stop it. It's too late now. Komen doesn't care about breast cancer, as they have just punished the one organization that does more than anyone to fight breast cancer, especially among poor women.

Komen is dead. Let's see if anyone participates in their races this year.