Planned Parenthood: The clash with Komen

The Susan G. Komen foundation outraged women across the country after it cut off $700,000 in grants to Planned Parenthood.

For women, it was our “Tahrir Square moment,” said Gloria Feldt in The​DailyBeast.com. The Susan G. Komen foundation, a breast cancer charity that started the pink-ribboned “Race for the Cure,” outraged women across the country last week, after it cut off $700,000 in grants to Planned Parenthood—money that would have financed breast cancer exams in poor communities. Komen had been under pressure from pro-life activists to distance itself from Planned Parenthood because it’s the nation’s biggest provider of abortions (about 300,000 every year) and contraception (to 2.5 million women). In response to this blatant attack on women’s reproductive rights, hundreds of thousands of women signed online petitions, and Planned Parenthood was flooded with $3 million in donations. After three days of rage, Komen backed down and reinstated Planned Parenthood’s funding. Right-wing lawmakers and judges should take note of the fury Komen unleashed, said Margery Eagan in the Boston Herald. “The great, sleeping giant that is pro-choice America” has been woken.

The backlash was hysterical and unwarranted, said Michael Walsh in the New York Post. Komen had entirely legitimate grounds for pulling its money, since Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer breast scans, but merely refers women to third-party providers. The charity wanted to free up funds for programs that actually provide “the lifesaving mammogram.” And yes, Komen also decided it would prefer to be on neutral ground in the controversy over abortion. But as Komen discovered, “the pro-choice lobby won’t let anyone take that middle ground in peace.” Planned Parenthood and its defenders, in fact, acted like mob enforcers, said James Taranto in WSJ.com. They sent a clear message to Planned Parenthood’s other donors: Keep on handing over the cash, or we’ll ruin you.

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