NEW YORK (AP) — After three days of controversy, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity says it is reversing its decision to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood.
“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” a Komen statement said.
As first reported by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Komen had adopted criteria excluding Planned Parenthood from grants because it was under government investigation, notably a probe launched in Congress at the urging of anti-abortion groups.
Komen said Friday it would change the criteria so it wouldn’t apply to such investigations.
“We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants,” the
EDITORS’ PICKS
Komen Also Stops Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research Centers
by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 2/1/12 6:54 PM
PrintEmail
National 6347 Share
In addition to stopping funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business, Komen for the Cure has also quietly stopped funding embryonic stem cell research centers, another concern for pro-life advocates.
As LifeNews reported last July, Karen Malec of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer spent time examining Komen’s 990 Forms for the IRS for 2010 and she found that Komen has active relationships with at least five research groups or educational facilities that engage in embryonic stem cell research, which requires the destruction of unborn children in their earliest days for stem cells that have yet to help any patients.
The return showed donations from Komen totaling $3.75 million to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, $4.5 million to the University of Kansas Medical Center, $1 million to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, $1 million to the Society for Women’s Health Research, and $600,000 to Yale University. All of them have embryonic stem cell research programs.
On November 30, 2011, Komen quietly added a new statement to its web site stating that it does not support embryonic stem cell research but supports the kinds that do not involve the destruction of human life.
“Komen supports research on the isolation, derivation, production, and testing of stem cells that are capable of producing all or almost all of the cell types of the developing body and may result in improved understanding of or treatments for breast cancer, but are derived without creating a human embryo or destroying a human embryo,” Komen says. “A priority in our research funding is to quickly find and deliver effective treatments, especially for the most lethal forms of breast cancer, while seeking effective preventive strategies, enhanced screening methodologies, and solutions to disparities in breast cancer outcomes for diverse women.”
Related Links
Sign the Petition to Thank Komen
Komen, in its listing of grants for 2011, lists two stem cell studies that do not involve the use of embryonic stem cells.
LifeNews talked with pro-life sources close to the Komen situation who confirmed Komen will categorically not fund any embryonic stem cell research and the purpose of the November 2011 statement is to inform grant seekers that Komen will not do so.
Komen’s funding for embryonic stem cell research centers was an issue for pro-life advocates. Recent statements from the Catholic Bishop of Toledo, the Most Reverend Leonard Blair, bring up both abortion and the potential of Komen indirectly supporting embryonic research as reasons for Catholics to have misgivings about the breast cancer group.
“They are open to embryonic stem cell research and may well fund such research in the future,” the bishop noted.
Meanwhile, as LifeNews reported, new Komen Vice President for public policy Karen Handel, a pro-life advocate for Georgia, also opposes embryonic stem cell research. She has been credited with being instrumental in helping stop the Planned Parenthood funding.
“I oppose embryonic stem cell research, which creates life solely for the purpose of destroying it. I do, however, strongly support adult stem cell research, which has produced numerous scientific achievements without terminating innocent lives in the process,” Handel said in 2010 as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
After seven years of sitting out Susan G. Komen for The Cure events, pro-lifers can finally get back in the Race! Yesterday, America’s biggest breast cancer charity made it official: the organization is severing ties with Planned Parenthood. The decision ends a multi-million dollar partnership between two nonprofit powerhouses, stunning abortion activists and elating most everyone else. It had been an unlikely alliance from the beginning--with one group setting out to save lives, and Planned Parenthood dedicated to ending them. Since 2005, the Foundation had justified the relationship by insisting that the money only funded breast cancer screening, education, and health programs. Then the news broke. Planned Parenthood didn’t need the money for mammograms, because it never provided them! The clinics only offer manual breast exams, which the National Institutes of Health (NIH) warns is an ineffective form of cancer screening.
Under Komen’s new policy, the Foundation will only award grants to organizations that actually do mammograms. That seems reasonable to everyone but the Left, which has spent the last 24 hours unleashing the fury on the Komen Foundation for “politicizing” the issue--when in reality, the Foundation is just trying to protect its resources. As the charity points out, Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation for misusing taxpayer funds. And unlike most in Congress, Susan G. Komen wants to be good stewards of your money. In just the last few years, Planned Parenthood has racked up a record of fraud, Medicaid overbilling, criminal cover-ups, falsifying medical information, violating safety standards, encouraging prostitution and sex trafficking, medical malpractice, accepting racially-motivated donations, and huge profits. Any legitimate organization should back away. (Even wasteful organizations like the federal government!) There are plenty of respectable health clinics out there (1,200, in fact) that would host the screenings without promoting abortion--a procedure that may have more to do with causing breast cancer than curing it.
Not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood and its allies are on the warpath. After all, this isn’t just the loss of millions of dollars but another major public relations defeat as well. Pro-lifers, meanwhile, are tickled pink that Susan G. Komen has changed to an abortion-neutral stance and is fighting to give women the care they deserve. It’s not only a more principled position, but a prudent one. Take a few minutes to write to the Foundation here and thank them for defunding Planned Parenthood!
Under Increasing Pro-Life Pressure, Susan G. Komen Announces Hold on Grants to Planned Parenthood
Representing a significant victory for pro-life advocates, officials of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure announced on Tuesday the organization’s decision to stop contributions to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest promoter and performer of abortion. The action comes as a Congressional committee continues its investigation into Planned Parenthood’s possible misuse of federal funding and potential violation of federal restrictions on the funding of abortions.
Among other inquiries, pro-life Congressman Cliff Stearns, R-FL, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Investigations Subcommittee, has demanded that Planned Parenthood demonstrate how “segregation between family planning and abortions services is accomplished” and the abortion promoter’s provision of “any state audits of PPFA for the last 20 years that have not been made public."
Monday’s announcement by the Komen Foundation also comes after action by the full U.S. House to strip public funding for Planned Parenthood and public relations stumbles by Planned Parenthood officials such CEO Cecile Richards who falsely claimed that Congressional action to remove federal funding for Planned Parenthood would result in a failure to provide mammograms. In fact, no Planned Parenthood facilities provide or perform mammograms.
Eve Sanchez Silver, a charter member and former employee of The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s National Hispanic/Latina Advisory Council, will be guest speaker at the upcoming Pro-Life Women’s Day on the Hill, an annual event sponsored by Tennessee Right to Life. Ms. Silver resigned her position with Komen upon learning of the relationship between Komen and Planned Parenthood and she will be speaking in Nashville on that relationship as well as the growing evidence for a link between abortion and breast cancer.
Pro-Life Women’s Day on the Hill is set for Wednesday, March 21 at Legislative Plaza. For more information or to make reservations, contact: .
For more information, visit us at http://www.tnrtl.org
Tennes
BREAKING: Komen to Stop Grants to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz
After years of protests and criticism from pro-life advocates, the biggest breast cancer organization, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has announced it is halting further grants and donations to the Planned Parenthood.
Figures from August directly from the Komen for the Cure foundation show 18 affiliates of the breast cancer charity gave a total of more than $569,000 to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in 2010. That was down from the $731,303 Komen officials publicly confirmed in October 2010, when they acknowledged that 20 of the 122 Komen affiliates gave to Planned Parenthood during the 2009 fiscal year.
Now, Komen says it is halting all grants because of public pressure from pro-life groups and due to the impending investigation in Congress of the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
The policy makes it so no further Planned Parenthood grants will be given unless the investigation results in Planned Parenthood’s favor. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/01/31/komen-to-stop-grants-to-planned-parenthood-abortion-biz/
