Komen does not have a pony in the abortion discussion. The only horse they ride is the one covered in the pink ribbon at the end of the race. From everything I understand, they never gave money to Planned Parenthood to support abortions. They gave it to them because they promised to do breast exams when they applied for a grant with Komen. While it is true that planned parenthood has abortion availability at the core of its reason for existing, they also do offer other women’s health services.
At some point the pro-life movement heard of this connection. With good reason, the pro-life movement longs for the day when Planned Parenthood can no longer have the means to run their abortion mills. And so, any connection to Planned Parenthood is assumed to be pro-choice support. For Komen, it was never so. It was simply about breast cancer. But when the controversy raised to a certain level, they were concerned that their horse might be hobbled by their connection to Planned Parenthood. They announced they were no longer going to fund Planned Parenthood not because they wanted to take a pro-life stance, but because they wanted to make sure they had enough support to finish the race they sought to run.
Just when they thought their horse was back to a winning gallop, the calls from those who love Planned Parenthood starting flowing in. Again the Komen horse of breast cancer research was threatened. For while many of those calling were trying to save their sacred organization that assured abortion availability to women, they also happened to be fervent supporters of other women’s health issues.
So Komen jumped back again. Not to make a pro-choice statement, but to keep enough support for the race they wanted to finish, that of breast cancer research.
Komen is not Pro-Life. True. Komen is not Pro-Abortion. True. They are Pro-Cancer research. To that end, they seek to keep as many people supporting them as they can. In that light, they sought to not offend the Pro-life community. They also sought to not offend the Pro-Choice community.
I say to my pro-life friends, do not let your anger rest on Komen. Their cause is good. They had a disastrous PR week trying simply to keep their cause afloat. They took some missteps. But their cause is good. And they have sought to insure that their money given to Planned Parenthood will never be used for anything other than services related to their cause.
You are right to let your anger rest on Planned Parenthood. They are set against life as a matter of purpose and policy.
Komen is not. If you want a group that is purposely pro-life and pro-breast cancer research, you will have to search elsewhere. And that is your prerogative. But if you are okay with having a group that is solely pro-breast cancer, then Komen may be a group you support. Unless you are willing to crucify every secular group not actively putting resources toward Pro-life causes, I think Komen can be brought down from the cross.
If you disagree, I truly hope you will seek to correct me here or on Facebook in the comments.
I agree with your sentiment to a degree. However, the ugly part of our world is that all of our connections have ramifications. For organizations (like Planned Parenthood) that rely on donations and grants, every dollar counts. It takes a certain amount of money to perform and abortion and a certain amount of money to perform cancer screenings. If Komen gives money for breast cancer research and it is used for that, it allows PP to use other funds for other services (i.e. abortion). It is all connected. Like it or not.
It is difficult for me to agree with your conclusions that Komen is purely pro-breast when so misguided. While funding screenings for breast-cancer within Planned Parenthood, this is the same facility that induces abortions which increase breast cancer rate in the first full term pregnancy for women. Looking at the studies, both pro and con, my reason concludes that induced abortions increase breast cancer and so hurt and harms the people they are paying to help.
What Komen ends up doing, it seems to me, is similar to giving money to a clinic to provide free/reduced dental x-rays whom also is handing out sugar candy to whomever wants it and an increased cavity rate results among the very people attemting to care for.
While groups including government National Cancer Institute have tried to disprove the abortion-breast-cancer relationship statistically exists (2003), they have not invalidated that the relationship exists. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, vol. 10 no 4,, Winter 2005 (www.jpands.org).