Funds Pulled from Planned Parenthood [UPDATE]

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nation's largest breast cancer charity, has pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants toward breast cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood, citing it's newly implemented policy that they will not award grants to groups under investigation from the federal government. This is great news for many in the pro-life community who've in the past refused to donate to the charity (including myself, though I don't consider myself to be part of the pro-life movement) because of the connection to Planned Parenthood.

Of course the "pro-choice" crowd has their heads spinning, and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure page on Facebook was flooded with both positive and negative messages, including several faulting the charity for the future deaths of thousands of women due to breast cancer.

Here's the problem with that accusation. It's already been confirmed that Planned Parenthood doesn't actually perform mammograms. This was confirmed by a Planned Parenthood clinic employee/volunteer last year. They offer referrals for mammograms, which anyone can obtain from other free clinics not associated with Planned Parenthood or from a primary care physician. Not to mention that just because Planned Parenthood isn't receiving funds specifically earmarked for breast cancer screenings, they're going to stop the screenings all together. For Planned Parenthood to do that would confirm their status as an abortion-first market, and they would never expose themselves like that without running the risk of losing future donations.

Cecile Richards, the current president of Planned Parenthood, equated the actions of Susan G. Komen for the Cure to "bullying". However, this is what freedom of speech (spoken with dollars) is all about -- the ability to use your money to support organisations as you see fit based on your principals (or the principals of your organisation). Just as those against abortion chose not to donate to Susan G. Komen for the Cure while it was funnelling money to Planned Parenthood, those supporting Planned Parenthood can choose not to donate to the breast cancer charity. In my opinion, THAT shows an abortion-first mentality instead of someone willing to support women's health and well-being.

UPDATE: Susan G. Komen for the Cure is changing their tune AGAIN, stating they'll continue to fund Planned Parenthood. “Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation,” a Friday statement said. “ We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.”

This is what their policy should have been in the first place. Or better yet, they never should have provided funding to Planned Parenthood from the beginning. Now this about-face is angering those on both sides of the abortion argument. The lesson here is that Susan G. Komen for the Cure isn't about standing up for its principals -- it's about standing with whichever group is shouting the loudest.

Comments

[jacobs-muse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is good news.

[trevelyanl85a2.livejournal.com]

Not really. Even though you may not like Planned Parenthood, they do provide legitimate services for people who cannot afford such things at regular clinics.

The problem with the Komen foundation is that they've been too arrogant with marketing and less on focusing on funding. I've heard a report how they tried to sue another group simply for them using the words "race for the cure" I believe. .....

[eajou.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I tried going to "birth control centers" that were NOT Planned Parenthood and some were religious based and they told me that they couldn't even help me get birth control and I should only be calling them if I was pregnant. I'm like, dude, I'm in college and uninsured and you want me to wait to do anything with my reproductive organs UNTIL I'm pregnant. Actively seeking BC here, WHY IS THAT A BAD THING?! Planned Parenthood was the only place around here that offered anything in the way of prevention services.

[zansa-san.livejournal.com]

Your on-campus health clinic doesn't provide BC ...?

(And many clinics with religious affiliations are for pregnancy crisis, specifically. They also typically don't condone premarital sex. If you don't want to be told to keep it in your pants, there are plenty of secular clinics to choose from.)

[eajou.livejournal.com]

I don't live on (or near) my campus. I am finishing up my last three classes at a community college and they are being transferred into my Uni. They don't offer BC.

1. I was not looking for BC because I can't keep it in my pants, but rather because I need regulation. I can go five months with nothing, and then be dying in pain with cramps when it happens.
2. Not all the clinics had religious affiliations, even the secular clinics said the same. PP is the ONLY clinic around that helps people in lower incomes get BC.

[nisie.livejournal.com]

My sister got her BC from the free clinic. They get funding from the federal government and gave her BC free.

[eajou.livejournal.com]

I asked about it and got a noncommittal answer and a pat on the head. The only people who have ever been helpful at all is PP.

[zansa-san.livejournal.com]

I did two years at community college, and I know they don't offer on-campus health services. But if you're planning on transferring to a University, or are already a registered student at one, they are more likely to offer BC, and you should check them out. Or did you mean that your University doesn't offer BC? I'm confused by the wording in your response.

I have lived with horrible cramps and terrible PMS since I started menstruating. Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and live with it if you can't afford to pay for BC to regulate it, until you are in a position to do so. Those pills cost money to make, too.

I know that PP offers other services, but I guess one has to ask oneself whether or not they feel morally comfortable patronizing a business who's bread and butter is performing abortions. *shrug*

[eajou.livejournal.com]

I was living at the uni and they only offered condoms. Which was entirely unhelpful. Now that I'm finishing up at the CC and transferring those credits in, I am five hours away from my main Uni campus. The bread and butter for PP is not preforming abortions, it is for issues surrounding reproductive health. They just happen to preform abortions, an issue which stands out to a pro-life crowd.

I'll consider your wonderful advice telling me to suck it up the next time I have a combined massive migraine and crippling cramps and have to go to the emergency room for help. Of course, I guess I just should suck up passing out or wanting to whither on the floor and die.

I wouldn't patronize PP if there were other options out there for low-income persons. So yeah, I feel entirely comfortable patronizing them until there are other options available for people who need BC. My moral conscious is clean.

[zansa-san.livejournal.com]

Obviously condoms would be unhelpful for the sort of problems you're having - that's a given.

And yes, yes it is. Abortion is their primary "health care" service; it's also where the majority of the funding they receive is directed. And even if it wasn't, it wouldn't matter - it's still morally, ethically unsound at any level.

I guess it can't be expected for everybody to be made of sterner stuff - I only know that I somehow manage to ride out the migraines and the nausea and the anemia every month without the help of anything stronger than Tylenol.

And that's perfectly fine. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

[eajou.livejournal.com]

Good for you.

[kharmii.livejournal.com]

I used to get really bad cramps and migraines during my period. Doctors put me on birth control, which helped a little. Then I found out I had endometriosis. The removal of that, plus the fact that I've given birth once, has cured all my monthly problems completely.

[ladylynx.livejournal.com]

I have a tumor in my uterus that makes me bleed 20 days a month. I was forced to go on birth control by one gyno. It made my skin dry, my hair thin, and made me so disinterested in my boyfriend, that we broke up. My new gyno put me on Lysteda, which has no hormones in it and doesn't effect fertility. When I take it, it feels like I'm taking vitamins. No side effects. I hope that more medicines are developed that make BC a thing of the past for those medical issues.

[kharmii.livejournal.com]

I hope so too. I had an easy pregnancy because the labor pains were no more or less painful than the cramps I got from my period about every third time for the last twenty years. Then, for some reason, endometriosis must be a new discovery, because so many doctors put me on birth control as a cure all. When I got the endometriosis removed, they found a huge fibroid in my uterus that could have been there for who knows how long. I remember the birth control pills made me depressed and the pain was still there.

[kharmii.livejournal.com]

The only 'bullying' that's going to happen will be in the form of super-wacko comments from the fanatical left on Komen's facebook page. I wouldn't want to be friends with her and weed through my flist on FB.

[eajou.livejournal.com]

Those supporting Planned Parenthood can choose not to donate to the breast cancer charity. In my opinion, THAT shows an abortion-first mentality instead of someone willing to support women's health and well-being.

No.

It is my understanding that different PP offer different services depending on their funding. Just because a few can't offer full-out 100% reproductive services does not mean that there are not PP out there that do offer those services. Also, the exact quote regarding mammograms was, “We actually don’t have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics.”. However, that does not mean that they do NOT help women get mammograms. It means that they don't have the machines THERE. Not to mention, mammograms is not the extent of woman's health necessities. For example, PP also does pap smears, provides birth control (unlike other places that will only help you if you are already pregnant) and so forth. Every PP has different levels of funding. If not for PP then I wouldn't have had ANY support towards my health and well-being in these last two years.

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

However, that does not mean that they do NOT help women get mammograms.

True, but if they were primarily acting as a referral service, sending women to clinics where they can get mammograms (and usually not for free), then why were they receiving funds earmarked for breast exams and mammograms? All other reproductive issues aside (since Komen is geared towards breast health and cancer awareness, prevention, and cures -- I don't see where BC pills and pap smears really have a place in this particular debate; go to PP for birth-control, sure -- for me, that's what "Planned Parenthood" is supposed to mean: be a parent when you plan it), if the money is meant to be for mammograms, and PP is acting as a referral service... that seems... I don't know. Not quite right.

A lot of my LJ and FB friends right now are furious, because now uninsured and/or poor women won't be able to get mammograms -- I... can't help but wonder if this is patently false, since if PP was simply referring women to clinics, then those same women can still be referred to the same clinics. For instance, my mother is both unemployed and uninsured and our family doctor referred her to a lab that does mammograms for a reduced price. There are other venues for such referrals, so I'm genuinely curious as to why it's assumed that PP plays a large part in breast-related health.

[eajou.livejournal.com]

Nah, I've never had a mammogram there so I don't know. Nor do I particularly have a view on the fact that the funds were pulled from PP. I do not know whether or not PP does not provide ANY mammograms in any of their clinics or what, I was just throwing an alternative out there because people keep stating that the quoted statement "proves" that PP has nothing to do with breast health. Which may or may not be true, IDK. They could do mammograms there or they could ALL be referrals, IDK. But keep in mind that they might not have done mammograms in that particular location, but that does not mean that PP does not do mammograms in any location either.

However, the allegation from the OP was that donating to PP makes you not someone willing to support women's health and well-being, which insinuates that the ONLY reason that PP exists is against supporting women's health. This is not true because PP does offer services outside of abortions that help women who cannot afford to get these services otherwise; services that "alternative birth control centers" do not provide. Most people are jumping all over this as PP not helping women at all just because they allegedly do not provide mammograms.

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Well, I know the quoted statement came from one of 30 PP clinics in 27 states, none of which provided mammograms, and all of which referred the caller to a different clinic.

I don't particularly agree with the OP's stance that PP's sole objective is anti-women's health. I have known people who've had medical reasons for needing BC pills, and could only afford them through PP. (I myself have had to be on BC pills for a medical reason that, thankfully, got cleared up. Though I hate the damn things myself -- every time I've tried them, I have horribly unpleasant side-effects.) That said, I cannot help but feel that the voices touting PP as a leader in breast-health and breast cancer awareness (as some on my F-list have been doing) might not be aware of the fact that -- in at least 30 clinics -- they are a referral service rather than one that actually offers mammos (when the PP CEO/President did in fact state that it was a service they offered).

My feeling is, if they don't offer the service, they have no right taking the money. And as a private organization, if Komen feels their funds weren't being used properly, they have every right to withdraw funding. And private citizens have every right to donate TO PP, if they want.

That all said, I have seen undercover video of PP workers trying to talk a girl into getting an abortion, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. An abortion is something a young woman has to live with for the rest of her life -- a cousin of mine got pregnant in high school, and had an abortion. It devastated her emotionally, and even now, more than twenty years later, she wonders "what if"? So I... do have to wonder in my heart of hearts if PP volunteers and workers are trying to influence the mind of a woman or young woman who might not be sure... then I'm afraid I don't think that's in the best interest of a woman's health. But there could also be PP workers who try to counsel women in making the best decision for them -- I don't know.

[eajou.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like I said, I really could care less that PP lost funding from that source. If they didn't use the funds for breast health then it makes no sense for Susan G. Komen to be donating to them. I don't care, I have not personally used PP for that purpose nor have tried to at this point in my life. Plus, I don't begrudge Komen for donating to where they want.

It is that stance that I see by the OP and some posters that PP is entirely anti-woman's health that makes me go, "EH?!". I couldn't care less if someone does want BC for medical purposes or if they want to be proactive about their BC options. The point is that PP is one of the only places around here that offers those services to low-income individuals.

Plus, like you said, not everyone needs BC because of pregnancy prevention! It astounds me how uneducated people are about BC really, I had an ex who flipped out because he found out that I had used BC in the past. He went on this tirade about how "IF YOU DON'T HAVE SEX, YOU DON'T USE BC! WERE YOU A S*** OR SOMETHING? I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN BE WITH A WOMAN WHO DIDN'T SAVE HERSELF FOR MARRIAGE! DON'T LIE, YOU USED BC!". He knew that I was a virgin. I dumped his judgmental butt soon thereafter.

I don't know about all PP workers trying to get girls to get abortions. A friend of mine, who used PP services, got pregnant and kept her child. Do I believe that there are workers who do try to be all like, "This is the best thing for you ever, DO IT!"? Absolutely. Just like I know that there are people on the other side of the spectrum who would do the same thing if they were in that position of influence. However, I do know of PP workers who are not all about "GETTING TEH ABORTIONS!" but rather about letting woman choose. Yes, there is probably a bias, and that bias is what should be addressed while the exceptions considered.

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

Hence why SGK cut out the middle man and funds will now be given directly to the providers. At least that way, they're aware of exactly how their funds are being used.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Cecile Richards, the current president of Planned Parenthood, equated the actions of Susan G. Komen for the Cure to "bullying".

Boy, that's rich, coming from PP!

We'll see how long before the Komen organization changes its tune.


Just as those against abortion chose not to donate to Susan G. Komen for the Cure while it was funnelling money to Planned Parenthood, those supporting Planned Parenthood can choose not to donate to the breast cancer charity. In my opinion, THAT shows an abortion-first mentality instead of someone willing to support women's health and well-being.

It's not just your opinion. It's blunt fact. Murdering children is PP's first and foremost goal. And God help you if you stand in their way.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Susan G. Komen was idiotic for ever getting into bed with Planned Parenthood in the first place. It doesn't matter what other services PP provides or if they are valid or not. I don't care if they do mani/pedis. They perform abortions and since I consider abortion murder, I wouldn't want one red cent of my money going to them for any reason. Other pro-lifers have felt the same way for years. I'm sure this has affected Komen's fundraising and I'm sure they've had trouble partnering up with churches and other religious organizations for this reason. Why this never occurred to Komen, I'll never know except that perhaps some lefty ideologue running the organization wanted to show her buds at PP some love by making a donation.

Now that Komen publicly broke away from PP, the other side is unhappy. Komen should have just stayed out of the abortion issue period.

[rightsaidred.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all of this. ^^

[obaona.livejournal.com]

Having read all this discussion, all I can think is that regardless of whether PP provides other services useful to women, that can never make up for the taking of life. The solution, to my mind, is not to ignore the abortions that PP provides in favor of other services, but to change the viewpoint of pro-life organizations in regards to having a wider set of feminine issues they help you with (which is indeed broad).