Shame on Susan G. Komen

Parent Cafe
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<p>What are omens goals and have they changed over the years? Is research, education, prevention, testing, what about the suing of others for using thebword cure? </p>

<p>But you cant putnpolitics behind it. The komen boardnhas made it political. They are parterning with the Bush Institute, a former bush staffer helped with this mess, it’s new board members openly stated they have a very specific agenda, they aren’t stepping up and disclaiming the falsehoods postedon their site about the non existent link between birth control and breast cancer, they are granting lesson research and more on administration and than ever before, they are not the all pink loveyndovey charity they claim to be. Spending tens of millionsof dollars to protect their brand is not in their mission statement i imagine.</p>

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<p>I saw the video clip of Ambassador Brinker on Komen’s Facebook page. While she was saying how they’d gotten very favorable response to their decision to cut PP’s funding, I was seeing more and more unfavorable posts go up. She was brazenly lying.</p>

<p>I believe that she lied about why the funding was cut, I think she’s lying again about Planned Parenthood having a chance to get further grants, and I know she was lying about the very favorable response. </p>

<p>I don’t give my money to liars, or to organizations headed by liars.</p>

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To me this situation is a pretty good example of how many situations in the US are getting politicized and polarized when there is room for common ground. Fighting Breast Cancer is a cause I would think 99.99% of people would applaud and support and one that people from any political background could find common ground and work to together to address. Apparently Komen decided that working to defeat breast cancer wasn’t enough … the organizations that it works with should also align with its beliefs on other issues … this is certainly it’s right but by definition reduces its possible partners, its reach, and its base of support. It’s a choice they are free to make … an unfortunate one IMO.</p>

<p>(PS - many years ago, in my opinion, NOW made a similar mistake in the opposite direction … NOW was focused on issues like workplace discrimination and equal pay issues … positions that many women and men from all over the political spectrum could support … and then NOW decided to pull abortion rights into their platform and essentially ****ed off 1/2 their supporters … it certainly was their right to do so but to me, as a NOW member, was an unfortunate move that hurt their work on their initial issues of focus)</p>

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<p>I love this columnist for The Baltimore Sun. Her column was spot on this morning.</p>

<p>[Susan</a> Reimer: Suspicions of Komen are borne out - baltimoresun.com](<a href=“http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-reimer-komen-20120203,0,4540415.column]Susan”>http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-reimer-komen-20120203,0,4540415.column)</p>

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<p>[PINK</a> RIBBONS (TRAILER) - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>

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<p>That movie started in theaters yesterday. Not very good timing for Komen.</p>

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<p>Great Reimer column, MDMom! Thanks for posting the link. </p>

<p>She points out that only 3 percent of what PP does involves abortion. All this hoopla over 3% of what they do! And, like it or not, abortion is a legal procedure.</p>

<p>I especially like the concluding paragraph of Reimer’s column:</p>

<p>“This is just the latest attack on the reproductive freedoms of women in this country. And although Komen did the right thing in the end, I am pretty sure that the real Susan G. Komen, the woman who fought breast cancer with such spirit and whose legacy grew to be so strong, would be offended by the way this played out.”</p>

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<p>Beil, so if you are against abortion and you give money for breast cancer research, would you want any of that money going to an organization that does abortions, no matter how small an amount?</p>

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It sure is!</p>

<p>[Breast</a> Cancer Society Scam - Breast Cancer Industry Scams - Marie Claire](<a href=“http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/breast-cancer-business-scams]Breast”>The Big Business of Breast Cancer | Marie Claire)</p>

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<p>Geo, I respect your right to disagree, but I would focus on the 97%, the good things done by PP–patient education, health screenings, and ensuring the reproductive freedoms of all women. We all have the right to donate our funds where we like, but if I buy a pink mixer and Komen decides to boycott PP, I’d be happier buying a mixer that isn’t pink and donate money directly to PP and other organizations that care about the health care of ALL women, regardless of their opinion on abortion…BTW, I can’t imagine circumstances that would lead me to have an abortion, but I would never want to deny others that option.</p>

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<p>Well, I for one think the 3% is very much a part of the good things PP does. Safe, legal abortion for women who make that choice has saved tens of thousands of women (including thousands of “Christian” women) from back-alley abortionists (many of them also “Christian”).</p>

<p>And I also think it is fine for people to choose not to send money to organizations that make referrals for these services. (I can’t speak for other areas of the country, but where I live, PP doesn’t perform any abortions.)</p>

<p>I am PRO-LIFE, which is why I believe in women’s right to choose. I refuse to surrender that label.</p>

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<p>Komen totally messed up and they are going to pay a steep cost for it. Their logic in denying PP grants to do breast cancer screening was so patently political it is idiotic, what they left out was PP is not under criminal investigation, the ‘investigations’ are politically motivated, not the investigation of attorney generals, but right wing congressmen and legislatures trying to find any reason they can to shut down PP. Basically, it is a form of McCarthyism, using any tactic necessary to try and shut down a group they don’t like. On top of everything else, the extreme anti abortion forces also are anti birth control/anti condom/anti sex education, they live in a dreamworld where if you don’t talk about sex, preach ‘abstinence’ only and the like that sex won’t happen…</p>

<p>And yes, Komen has also pulled out of research using stem cells in cancer therapy, and again it was politically motivated. The problem with Komen is they put some born again Christian type in a leadership position and bought the argument that somehow the anti abortion forces out to get PP and the like need to be appeased, and they goofed. Other then the extreme right type of pro lifers, many otherwise pro life people are angered that Komen would deny funds that help poor women get screenings they might otherwise not have, and it is quite typical of that branch of the pro life movement. These are the same people that are anti birth control/sex education that helps reduce the need to have abortions, and the same people, in lockstep with the hard right politicians they support, favor gutting the social net programs for the poor, many of which are aimed at poor children (free school lunches, head start, etc). Pro life seems to end at birth in other words, which is sad (and no, there are a lot of pro life people who recognize that disconnect, that you can’t be all about ‘protect the fetus’ then say “have a nice life” when it is born). </p>

<p>What is very interesting is the backlash against Komen wasn’t organized, it was an incredible flood of twitter messages, facebook postings, blog posts and the like, and other then on some pro life blog sites, it overwhelmingly condemned Komen, which I think reflects reality, that the hard right pro life types represent a minority. </p>

<p>To be honest, I don’t necessarily think it is a bad thing, because while Komen in many ways has done a lot to get out the word of the need for breast cancer awareness and treatment, they also have turned into more of a marketing company IMO, one that seems more intent in being a power player then in really doing what they are supposed to do, fight cancer. They have all kinds of deals with consumer product companies going ‘think pink’, and spend a lot of time it seems promoting themselves and the products rather then the cause from what I can tell. Last time I checked, they also have a horrendous record of getting money out to the front lines, a lot of the money they get goes to overhead, as it does for many of the big charities. I also have another problem, they are heavily aligned with the big pharmaceutical companies and that raises troubling questions for me, because quite frankly in the battle to eradicate cancer, most of the emphasis seems to be on traditional chemo and radiation therapy, rather then on finding ways to prevent it or fight it non traditionally (I suspect that part of the reason Komen dropped stem cell research, besides placating the uber religious types, is that it also was competition for standard cancer treatments).</p>

<p>Funny, I just saw a poster for a Komen breast cancer walk in a local store, and several woman passed by it and looked at each other and basically said “yeah, right”, and I suspect with big events in places like NYC they are going to see huge drops in participation.</p>

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<p>It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and a minute to knock it down. Komen has really shot themselves in the foot. Handel needs to be shown the door. There is a petition going around to fire Handel. So far it has almost 19K signatures.</p>

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<p>Beil, I just asked the question without saying how I felt ;). I would agree with your focus as to how to donate money. One of the problems with organizations is that they hit you up when you don’t have access to information. (I hate being hit up for funds or political petitions when I am walking into the grocery store.) Of course, if you give without finding out how the funds are distributed, that’s your problem.</p>

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<p>Do you really think Handel needs to be shown the door? Do you think it really matters? At this point, might they not be better off as the “anti-abortion cancer cure organization”? If they fire Handel, they’ll just anger what remains of their supporters still further.</p>

<p>(I think she’ll probably resign next week - we should take up a pool…)</p>

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<p>"Beil, so if you are against abortion and you give money for breast cancer research, would you want any of that money going to an organization that does abortions, no matter how small an amount? "</p>

<p>A good question and one that highlights the problems with rigid ideology/black and white thinking. The question here is what is worse, giving money to an organization that provides abortion services where that money is going to help save people’s lives (not abortion) or not giving it and having people not have access to care and screening that could kill them? Many of the anti abortion forces have so fetisized abortion as the evil of all evils that they won’t/cannot look at other issues. Many of the extreme anti abortion groups, often quite religious, will vote based on a politicians stance on abortion alone, while for example that same congressman might support a war they think is immoral, or support gutting programs that help the poor, which last I checked is a fundamental belief of both Judaism and Christianity, it is about looking at the lesser of two evils, trying to see the shades of gray. When someone sees a world in black and white they often, quite unintentionally, end up committing an evil themselves because they cannot see it.</p>

<p>There are plenty of things in life where you end up giving money even if you have problems with the group getting it. When disaster strikes, people give money to groups like the Red Cross, even though they know those groups tend to have high overhead. There are religious groups whose beliefs I don’t agree with, who have some charity arms (Catholic Charities, save the children and so forth) who do great things, so I donate to them because I believe they are doing the right thing, even if I disagree with their stance on others. I will give money to the Salvation Army, even though their stance on some social issues is 180 degrees different then mine, because I believe they do good with the money. I live in a state that pays a lot in federal taxes and gets a lot less back then we paid in, and often that money goes to subsidize poorer states, who often vote in ways totally opposite to what I believe in, who get a lot more back from the fed then they pay in, and I don’t object because that money goes to support schools, roads, transportation and health care for the poor, all of which I think is important. </p>

<p>The anti abortionists remind me of something going on in the Catholic Church, where their absolute hatred of condoms ran head on into a major health crisis, Aids in Africa, specifically Uganda. Uganda has a very high AIDS rate and there were Bishops and clergy arguing that where so many women were being infected by husbands passing on the virus after contact with prostitutes, that possibly the evil of innocent women dying of AIDS was much more then that of promoting condom use…unfortunately ideological rigidity left them to say no, and in Uganda it effectively ended condom distribution and promoting ‘abstinence only’, which caused the HIV infection rate to soar…what was worse?</p>

<p>PP is not primarily an abortion provider, the overwhelming function of the group is in family planning (birth control, etc), education and healthy screenings for underserved communities, and if you focus on ‘the evil of abortion’ and cannot see the 97% that is doing good things, where is the greater evil?</p>

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<p>Agreed, but I don’t want to let even the question get away without comment, the 3% is doing good things.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/actioncenter/CatholicsforaFreeChoice-SpeakOut.asp[/url]”>http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/actioncenter/CatholicsforaFreeChoice-SpeakOut.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Some 20% of pregnancies end in abortions in the U.S., the vast majority among Christians (and Catholics). Cities with very high Catholic populations (such as NYC (41% in 2009) and Boston) have particularly high abortion rates.</p>

<p>These are all Guttemacher statistics (1998):
Who’s having abortions (religion)?
Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as “Born-again/Evangelical”.</p>

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<p>I would bet on handel resigning, saying that she has other things to do or doesn’t want to be a distraction from the work of the foundation, etc. I would argue that if Handel, who is widely believed to be the root of the right wing shift at Komen, doesn’t leave/get fired, that Komen will face such a loss of funding that it will be dead anyway. They know something that anyone with knowledge of corporations and also people who give money, the anti abortion/pro life/hard right make a big noise about how influential they are, but the reality is in monetary terms they represent a small financial base. Corporations, sensing the scandal, will drop support for Komen if they feel it will hurt them, and if it decides to be the anti abortion cancer group, they will drop them like a hot potato because it could just be too costly to them. And right wing groups like anti abortion and anti gay evangelical groups have threatened all kinds of boycotts, they have boycotted disney and ford for their support of gays, for example, and the companies basically yawned because it ended up not costing them much and gained them a lot more good image by doing so. I suspect the muckety mucks at Komen have been hearing from their corporate partners, I suspect the about face they pulled was not smally influenced by getting more then a few calls from corporate giving offices and marketing departments, telling them they needed to deal with this, with the implied ‘or else’</p>

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<p>I think it’s a given that they will lose about half their funding this year (maybe more). If my community is any indication, their local support will almost totally dry up (I’ll be surprised, frankly, if they can even pull off an event this year.) I expect they need to have a plan for long-term viability, something which I seriously doubt they’ve even begun to consider.</p>

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That still comes down to a matter of opinion. One where people of all stripes agree or disagree. I don’t think that everyone is going to get on the same side of the fence anytime soon.</p>