Susan G Komen Defunds Planned Parenthood.
 

SGK hired an anti-choice, anti-stem cell, pro-christian fake pregnancy assistance clinic, pro-voter suppression republican as VP. Now, they've killed Planned Parenthood funding. SGK just got added to my permanent "not one penny from me" list.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1245568.html

Here's the wikipedia entry on this woman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Handel

Wow...me too!

I wonder if we can find a list of Corporate Donors and set up boycotts of their products so pressure them to re-consider?

http://ww5.komen.org/corporatepartners.aspx

Found it!

Thank you for this post and thread.

Nothing has sickened me as much recently as this. How DARE they? De-funding PP means that some women will DIE because Koman is caving to right-wing pressure and dollars. Cowardly and disgusting. Please SPEAK OUT!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/0...nnedParenthood

YES!

I was heartsick to read this on CNN this morning.

DON'T give your money to Komen, give it to SisterSong for Reproductive Justice:

http://www.sistersong.net/

Interesting and eye opening information on an organization I used to support.

Please take the time to get informed.



What started all this.

HuffPo

NBC piece.

Right-wing Senator takes credit

Komen Watch

Thanks for all of the great links.

This is beyond disappointing.

I wish that people would see Planned Parenthood for what it really is and the important work that they really do every day....providing important health care for women who need it. Planned Parenthood is so much more than an abortion provider.

Before I left central NY I experienced driving past our local Planned Parenthood office for several days in a row as they were being picketed by protestors. By the third day I couldn't take it any more....parked my car, walked past the protestors, went inside....and wrote them a check for as much as I could afford.

I encourage all of you to support your local Planned Parenthood, with whatever you can manage. :rrose:

The upside, if there is an upside, is that PP has raised upwards of $400k in the last 24 hours since the announcement.

I've always donated to PP, but jeez louise it's like they're under siege. The last time I spoke with one of their representatives I asked why they don't make more of an effort to combat the right-wing conventional wisdom that they're nothing but an abortion factory. Ironically, I think this recent issue with SGK has increased general awareness of the scope of their mission far more so than any advertising they could have done themselves.

I still stand with planned Parenthood
 

https://secure.ppaction.org/site/SPa...and_0212_c3_fb


"This is for all the anti-choice, anti-women people out there.

Listen up.

You can spend every minute of every day trying to force the rest of us to live by your ideology. You can go after federal funds for health care and pressure private organizations like the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to stop funding breast cancer screenings for poor women. You can try to make it impossible to get birth control.

But you know what you can't do? You can't win. You can't break us. Planned Parenthood isn't just a family of organizations. It's a movement. It's women and men of all ages who believe that health care — including reproductive health care — is a basic human right. We are millions strong. We are everywhere. We act, we give, and we do whatever it takes to make sure that Planned Parenthood is there for the women, men, and teens who rely on them.

Know this: When you go after Planned Parenthood and the people they serve, you go after ME. I stand with Planned Parenthood. I stand with them against anyone who wants to stop women from receiving the health care they need. I stand with them today, tomorrow, and for as long as I need to."

From now on the pink ribbon on a product can tell us what not to buy!
 

Breasts Yes, Vaginas No? How to Fight Back Against Komen "Race for the Cure" Foundation's Bizarre Capitulation to Right-Wingers
How the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation put their corporation-friendly image before women’s actual health concerns.

It’s probably the fastest-spreading story in Internet history about the relationship between two non-profits. Late Tuesday afternoon, Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure announced that Komen would be withdrawing grants given to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings. Despite Komen’s lame attempts to claim otherwise, it was widely understood that this was about Komen aligning itself with the anti-choice movement, despite the anti-choice movement’s long history of opposing not just safe and legal abortion, but also access to contraception and even the prevention of cervical cancer through the use of the HPV vaccine.

So what gives? Why would Komen, which purports to be a women’s health organization, choose to align itself with an anti-health, anti-science movement instead of with another prominent women’s health organization that actually helps prevent and detect cancer? What role does Komen’s hearty corporate fundraising efforts play in all of this? Is there anything that people who care about women’s health concerns can do?

In the past couple of decades, one of the biggest accomplishments in women’s healthcare advocacy is destigmatizing breast cancer, and Komen certainly played a major role in this. In the past, women didn’t talk much about breast cancer, because like all things related to women’s sexuality, breasts were considered naughty and unspeakable and therefore so was breast cancer. Through cutesy methods, such as draping everything imaginable in pink ribbons, advocates were able to get breast cancer out of the closet and into the public discourse.

Unfortunately, in doing so, they weren’t quite able to lift the taboo on all of women’s healthcare. In place of the old taboo against all of women’s reproductive healthcare, there was now an above-the-belt/below-the-belt divide. When it comes to healthcare that allows women to keep their breasts, everyone from baseball players to every corporation looking to shore up its image was happy to talk about it. But anything below the belt, especially with regard to women managing their actual sex lives, remained taboo. STDs, pregnancy prevention, cervical cancer, abortion? All still considered dirty, and all still available for conservatives to demagogue about sin and sexuality. We are a country where everyone was clawing all over each other to talk about how important it is for women to get their boobs squeezed in a vise to look for cancer, but we’re also a country where a vaccine that’s been proven to prevent cancer below the belt is excoriated by prominent Republican politicians who want you to believe it gives “license” to female sexuality.

Anti-choice activists have been trying to exploit this divide for years now, demanding that when it comes to women’s healthcare, our bodies should be divided against themselves. Boobies are apple pie and baseball, but vaginas are subversive pits of hell, and all funding aimed at their upkeep is suspect. While the anti-choice movement has been pressuring Congress to cut federal subsidies for below-the-belt care such as contraception and STD treatment, they’ve been also pressuring Komen to distance itself from Planned Parenthood. With this decision, Komen reinforces this illogical divide between above-the-belt and below-the-belt healthcare for women.

In a sense, it shouldn’t be surprising. As illogical as it is to offer only piecemeal support for women’s healthcare, it also fits into a larger pattern of Komen putting its corporation-friendly image before women’s actual health concerns. For instance, Komen allowed KFC to sell “pink ribbon” buckets of fried chicken, even though it was obvious that KFC was trying to distract from scientific evidence showing that a diet high in saturated fat is linked to breast cancer.

Of course, relying so heavily on corporate partnerships can cut both ways. Many brands that want to cultivate a pro-woman image partner with Komen for that purpose. This year’s national sponsors of Race for the Cure could double as a list of brands that very much want female customers to like them: Yoplait, Ford, Bank of America, Caltrate, New Balance, and Self magazine, among others. The massive media hit demonstrating how little Komen actually prioritizes women’s health could really ding the impact of these partnerships.

Take, for instance, Yoplait. Most yogurt companies target female consumers with glowing images of health and good digestion, mixed with suggestions that yogurt be substituted for more fattening desserts for weight control, but Yoplait maximizes that marketing strategy. Draping its product in pink ribbons helps tie the product to the concept of “health” in women’s minds. For this same reason, Caltrate, a supplement designed specifically for women, has also become a sponsor of Race for the Cure.

New Balance gets a double whammy for supporting Komen. Not only does it get its sneakers associated with general health, but because Komen fundraises through 5K races, New Balance gets a chance to advertise directly to women who have an undeniable need for running shoes. Komen’s “soccer mom” image dovetails nicely with New Balance’s own image as being the sensible shoe of the moderate exerciser, in opposition with a brand like Nike, which prefers to associate itself with high-level athletes.

Self magazine is a relatively new sponsor of Komen, but like Yoplait and New Balance, it very much benefits from Komen’s base of support in women who are eager to take a personalized approach to good health and cancer prevention. Self tries to distinguish itself from other women’s magazines that are more fashion- and man obsessed, instead staking itself out on the rack as the sensible health-oriented magazine that just happens to have similar diet and exercise advice as those other magazines. Komen’s branding can certainly help Self distinguish itself from its competition on the magazine rack.

Ford Motor Company may not need the health glow these other companies get from the association, but it definitely needs the audience of women. Sixty percent of new cars sold in a year are sold to women, meaning that if you want to sell a car, you should appeal directly to female consumers. The Komen brand helps Ford seem like the sensible, safe brand, the sort of thing ordinary women racing for the cure might find attractive, especially if they’re mothers.

For the same reason, Bank of America has a strong need to appeal not just to women, but specifically to the stable, often married women that make up the majority of organizers and runners for Komen’s Race for the Cure. Women tend to handle more of the household finances than men, meaning that anyone trying to get families to switch banks needs to address themselves directly to wives and mothers. Enter the pink ribbons.

This all means that American women have the power to vote with their dollars. The pink ribbon on a product used to symbolize health, safety, and a general pro-woman attitude. Now, for increasing numbers of women, it symbolizes capitulation to the belief that women don’t deserve healthcare that addresses all their needs, not just those above the belt. We need to let corporations know that if they want to market to women, they have to market to the whole woman, the one who has a vagina as well as a more PG-friendly pair of breasts.

So Michael Bloomberg has announced he will match every new dollar donated to Planned Parenthood up to $250k. If the goal of SGK was to drive up support for Planned Parenthood, their success has been dramatic.

I got an email today from the director of the Susan G. Komen affiliate in AZ, where I donated and sponsored participants in runs and walks due to my professional connections there.

The director worked very hard to make the point that they are still supporting the health and healthcare needs of local women through grants to other organizations, and that their particular affiliate has never funded Planned Parenthood...and therefore hadn't withdrawn any funding.

After I finished laughing, I sent my response:

"While I appreciate your effort to distance yourself from the reprehensible actions of your national affiliate, I will no longer be donating to Susan G. Komen or any of its affiliates. My donations will go directly to Planned Parenthood instead.

I find the actions of your national organization to be a slap in the face to all women who need healthcare. I stand with Planned Parenthood."

It's not enough to stop donating to SGK....we need to tell them WHY also.

This is great Jo!

Everyone is doing their part, one by one we all make a difference.

Here is more:

The Decemberists Pull Support From Komen, Raise Funds for Planned Parenthood ~ Pitchfork

When I read about this yesterday, I about puked. The laughable part is the claim it has nothing to do with politics.

1.) Hire a Republican Pro-Lifer as one of your top dogs in the SGK.

2.) Allow new top dog (cant remember her name) to write new rules for SGK funding. One of the new rules, can't fund any organization under federal, state, or local investigation. Rep. congressman launches state investigation against PP, funding is cut.

Out of hundreds of organizations that get funding from SGK, Planned Parenthood is the ONLY one cut off the list. I'm pretty sure Penn State is under investigation, yet they were funded 7.5 million bucks from SGK.

NOPE! Doesn't sound like politics at all. Where's my barf bucket?

I don't curse a lot but I feel the need. Screw that crazy ass woman who influenced this organization to stop supporting Planned Parent Hood.

I have never been a big fan of Komen....ever. They rank up there with AmFAR in my book.

UofMan..........thanks for the link to Komen Watch. Everyone should read and understand what Komen actually does with all that money and all those cute pink ribbons and pink sports uniforms.....NCAA Women's Basketball is going to get an earful from me.

The head of Komen has been doing the talking head circuit today. Seems that they finally drummed up some lame-ass excuse and are trying to sell it. Andrea Mitchell (MSNBC), who has supported Komen in the past and was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, wasn't buying it. She looked kinda pissed during the interview.

After much backlash, people quitting, and Planned Parenthood receiving record donations, SGK has reversed the decision to not fund PP.


NICE job people!!!!! (like Corkey said!)

Looks like someone's had a change of heart **shakes head** SGK has decided to restore funding under pressure from the general public AND politicians.

Kudos to the president of Planned Parenthood for holding her ground with dignity and professionalism. In all of this, PPH was able to recoup that lost funding in a matter of days. Never insult the intelligence of the masses...

I'd say this backfired on SGK and I have no doubt THEY will be losing funding from folks who just won't tolerate right-winged, christian-based rhetoric anymore especially when it comes to someone's life.

I could go on and on....

I've never been impressed by people, companies or organizations that only do the right thing under pressure...or when they've gotten backlash for behaving badly.

I'll keep sending my donations to Planned Parenthood instead.

I agree with JustJo; I am not impressed that they decided to do the right thing b/c of pressure to do so.

In the past, I have supported the Joy to Life Foundation and I will continue to do just as I have always done :) And, yes, I even have the pink car tag.

http://joytolife.org/
:sparklyheart:

Ya know, I feel this same way. But, SGK funds a lot of good things. I'm angry though that they allowed themselves to be "tainted" by bringing political bullshit into what they do. From now on, I'll be doing direct donations to organizations that I believe in. I was donating to SGK because I trusted that they would be descent in allocating peoples donations.

Also, it pisses me off that it's woman (in this instance) that seem to be leading the attack against PP and womens health. I say, bad form.

Seriously?
 

This is exactly what Komen wanted to accomplish, to appease the masses with a red herring.

Beware people!

We need to read and be informed, not just take the dog treat given and wag our tails.


Friday, February 03, 2012
Komen caves, kinda, but still refusing to approve Planned Parenthood’s funding next year America Blog


Komen caves, kinda, but still refusing to approve Planned Parenthood’s funding next year

By John Aravosis on 2/03/2012 12:02:00 PM

The Susan G. Komen foundation caved today. Kinda. They issued a statement apologizing for the mess they created this week when they cut funding for Planned Parenthood breast exams for poor women, seemingly under pressure from far right politicos and anti-choice groups. But Komen's apology is slightly lacking. And according to their own CEO last night, they still can't approve future grants from Planned Parenthood. Unless she was lying.

In the apology Komen says that they'll continue Planned Parenthood's current funding, and they're changing their "no investigations" rule to say that it must be a criminal investigation, and conclusive. Okay, but the current funding wasn't at issue. Komen had always said they'd continue the current funding, so that's a red herring. The issue is next year's funding, which Komen just turned down. And on that account, Komen now says this:


We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

Preserve their ability to apply? What, Komen won't go to Planned Parenthood and steal all the pens so PPFA can't apply again in the future? They could always try to apply again. That's not the point.

If Komen is serious, they can simply approve the application Planned Parenthood has already submitted. Yes, they turned it down once, supposedly because of the now-old rule about investigations. Fine. If the rule is gone, then approve the grant.

Of course, it's even more complicated because of a video statement Komen CEO, Republican donor, and former Bush appointee, Nancy Brinker issued last night claiming that the right-wing congressional investigation had nothing to do with the decision to turn down Planned Parenthood's grant. Rather, Brinker now says Komen turned PPFA down because Komen no longer funds pass-through grants. So if that's the case, then changing Komen's investigations-rule won't change a thing. They'll still turn down Planned Parenthood again next time because of the supposed pass-through grant. Unless of course, Nancy Brinker was lying last night. So which is it?

The only way that Komen can get out of this mess is by approving Planned Parenthood's grant now. Komen has the application, they killed it for political reasons, and they got caught. And then to add insult to injury, Brinker concocted a new story last night.

If Komen really wants to do penance, they'll approve PPFA's grant now.

UPDATE: This statement from a right-wing Catholic group pretty much sums things up correctly:

“This represents nothing new. We have known and have reported that they are continuing five grants through 2012. This is a reference to that. The second clause about eligibility is certainly true. Any group can apply for anything. It does not mean they are going to get anything,” Ruse told LifeNews.

“What this is is an effort to get the mafia off of their backs. As James Taranto said in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, this is a classic shakedown operation. Give us money or we will destroy you. This is Komen’s attempt to save their organization, which we should know is in peril. Our side should know that nothing has changed.”

Bottom line: Komen cut funding for Planned Parenthood, it is facing massive revolt from its chapters and temendous opposition from Planned Parenthood and the media, and it appears to be leaving the door open for potential grants — not that they will necessarily happen beyond the ones previously approved prior to the decision — to please both sides.
Now that Planned Parenthood has issued a statement embracing Komen, and apparently accepting the "apology," the battle is over. I'm just not entirely sure that Planned Parenthood won. Komen should approve next year's grant now.

As for the Race for the Cure, we now know what Komen really is. And I don't know about you, but I don't give money to organizations that do David Vitter's bidding.

A friend of a friend on Facebook posted this as a comment to the SGK blog about their reversal of their decision to de-fund PP.
I thought it was spot on and it made me chuckle, so I thought I'd share it.


KOMEN PRESS RELEASE TRANSLATION:

Paragraph 1: We're sorry you got mad.

Paragraph 2: We're sad you think we did anything wrong. We didn't.

Paragraph 3: We were justified in what we did but will slightly alter our rules to stop your whining.

Paragraph 4: We'll fund the existing grants to PP until they expire. PP is welcome to apply for future grants but our
local affiliates have discretion to reject PP applications if birth control makes the local communities feel icky.

Paragraph 5: Shut up. If you keep talking about this then you're the one hurting women.

Paragraph 6: We're going to get our story straight and punish any local affiliate that strays from the official truth.

Paragraph 7: Thanks to the anti-stem cell research, anti-birth control people who like our decision.

Many of us in the women's motorcycling community have been raising funds for breast cancer research through the Pony Express Tour, as well as other initiatives of the Women's Motorcyclist Foundation. Those funds have always gone to Komen. I'm the artist that made the multi-part commemorative medallion that was an integral part of the fundraising tour every year. I'm planning to agitate for the WMF to find a better recipient for our future largesse.

This is a great group to follow, they've even got a list for alternative organisations to donate to:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/De-fu...71880872914883

Actually Komen did not change anything about PP funding. They did not defund grants that PP currently holds. They however have NOT restored any of the funding they denied PP. They also changed the new rules to say 'criminal investigation' which means Penn State should not get any Komen money. They also, decided on a Board level, will no longer fund stem cell research.

Read between the lines folks. Quit looking at the Komen hand in front of your face and look at the one behind Komen's back.

Not One Single Thing Has Changed.

Komen is a waste of time and money and resources. I want them to lose every single penny of support given to them. I hope there are loud and not pink protests at all the Run for the Cure events from now on.

Your response is what i am hoping to see on a wide scale. SGK has defined themselves as anti-choice, and the faux apology does not change that. As long as they keep their anti-choice VP and board members, they will continue to be an anti-choice organization.