Komen to fund at least 17 Planned Parenthood branches in 2012

by Kathleen Gilbert

April 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following a massive media backlash, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has apparently backed down, and will resume funding for at least 17 branches of Planned Parenthood, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Earlier this year Komen, the nation’s leading breast cancer charity organization, had pulled the funding due to Planned Parenthood’s being under federal investigation, and the fact that the family planning group does not offer direct cancer screening services such as mammograms, but only refers patients elsewhere.

While Komen was reportedly flooded with e-mails in favor of the defunding decision, a rash of resignations by top Komen officials, and high-profile condemnations from several U.S. Congressmen and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, prompted the organization to backtrack. Although Komen officials initially were unclear about whether funding would certainly resume, the group apologized and indicated that Planned Parenthood would remain eligible for funding in the next funding cycle.

“In the past few months, we made mistakes that ultimately raised questions in the community about our commitment to the mission of saving lives. We take full responsibility for these missteps and we extend our deepest apologies,” wrote Komen CEO Nancy Brinker in a letter to Congress last month over the Planned Parenthood flap. 

The Post reports that Komen will be funding about the same number of Planned Parenthood affiliates in 2012 that it funded in 2011.

Komen spokeswoman Leslie Aun pointed out to the Post that the group has “acknowledged our missteps and apologized,” and the breast cancer charity even pointed to a deepened relationship with Planned Parenthood affiliates in certain areas as one positive fallout of the controversy.

Austin Ruse of C-FAM told LifeSiteNews.com said that the breast cancer charity should remember how aggressively Planned Parenthood’s allies worked to vilify Komen for cutting the funding - which, although a mere drop in Planned Parenthood’s bucket at $680,000 last year, is a valuable component of the abortion group’s symbolic role in women’s health.

“[Komen CEO] Nancy Brinker is right. Komen made a ton of errors, some forced, some unforced. Chief among their mistakes was the way they rolled the whole thing out and their utter unpreparedness for what Planned Parenthood did to them,” Ruse told LSN.

“What Komen did and the response from Planned Parenthood and then Komen’s response to that response ought to be a case study at the Harvard business school,” he said. “My hope is that Nancy Brinker has a long memory and slowly burning stove of anger and enmity toward the woman - Cecile Richards - and the organization - Planned Parenthood - who tried to ruin Brinker’s life work. 

“I hope and pray Brinker eventually gets to do what she wanted to do all along, defund Planned Parenthood.”