The Komen Foundation Delivers a knock out punch to Planned Parenthood |
I have been a long time supporter of Planned Parenthood and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. My mother is a 20 year breast cancer survivor and I participate in the Race for the Cure annually.
I use to visit Planned Parenthood for my women's health related needs and the staff always treated me in a respectful manner. They provided me with needed information on how to properly plan my family growth.
The Komen Foundation supported funding to Planned Parenthood for breast exams. This is really an important aspect of women's health care and that helped to provide services to women from low income situations.
Yesterday, the Komen Foundation announced that it was pulling funding from Planned Parenthood because the organization is under investigation by Congress. This is really a smoke screen excuse for this action.Komen caved under the relentless pressure from anti-choice activists who oppose Planned Parenthood for offering abortions as well as low-cost contraception and STD prevention and treatment. In addition, Komen has a long history of not playing nice with other women's health care organizations. Planned Parenthood has created an emergency fund to replace Komen grants, to keep breast cancer screening service from being interrupted. a(Slate, 2012)
Planned Parenthood said the Komen grants totaled roughly
$680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before, going to
at least 19of its affiliates for breast cancer screenings and
other breast-health related services (Time, 2012).
Planned Parenthood has provided 4 million breast exams
over the past 5 years including, 170,000 as a result of
Komen Grants (2012).
This could prove to be detrimental to the women who rely
on Planned Parenthood to provide services for their breast-
health.
The Congressional investigation is being headed by Rep.
Cliff Sterns (R) Florida. He is trying to find out if
government funding is being used by Planned Parenthood
to provide abortions. This investigation was started at the
urging of an anti-abortion group known as Americans
United for Life.
This move has really angered me as a woman. The politics
of women's health care is being determined by a group of
white males and anti-abortion groups. It is an extension of
the current war against women.
I have made a decision that since The Komen Foundation
has bowed under political pressure and is not meeting its
primary goal of providing access to health care services for
women to detect cancer as early as possible through
Planned Parenthood based on an investigation that is not
really in progress (see the Time Magazine article), I will no
longer be supporting this particular organization. The
primary group of women who will be hurt by this decision
are women from low income households.
Here are list of resources that provide more information on
the work that Planned Parent has performed in the area of
Breast Care Health.
0 comments:
Post a Comment