When I first heard the Susan G. Komen Foundation is nixing its financial support of Planned Parenthood, I thought it might be a mistake. Maybe a rogue affiliate or anti-choice officer had acted independently of the group’s core and mission, and the press got the early story wrong. I waited for Nancy G. Brinker, Komen’s surviving sister, to step in and deny the BC agency’s change of plans. That didn’t happen.
Rather, in a stilted video released yesterday, Brinker defends her agency’s decision as part of a “strategic shift” having to do with funding for any organization under investigation. That’s a bogus excuse, as others have detailed.
Komen, the world’s largest BC agency, has been under scrutiny for some time. Through its early fundraising campaigns and walks, the group raised public awareness — and discussion — of the disease. Since its inception in 1982, the agency has invested over $1.9 billion in education, breast-cancer screening, research and other grants. The discourse has changed, though. Now, many are critical of Komen’s historic focus on BC education and screening, including mammography, and tire of seeing so much pink.
This week’s outcry over the agency’s political turn has been fierce. It’s not too late for Komen’s leadership to take note, change course and revise its agenda.
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