After receiving high praise from the likes of the Family Research Council, the Alliance Defense Fund and Liberty Counsel for halting grants to the nation’s largest abortion provider, the Susan G. Komen Foundation is suddenly backpedaling.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation on Friday appears to have bowed to the pressure of the pro-abortion lobby. The foundation announced it will again fund Planned Parenthood, a move many pro-life supporters say undermines Komen’s stated mission of “fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures.”
“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” says Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. “The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.”
After reportedly receiving a letter from U.S. senators, including pro-abortion advocates John Kerry, Al Franken and others, Komen changed its decision to stop funding an organization that conducts procedures that are actually linked to increasing the risk of breast cancer, according to an article written by obstetricians and gynecologists called Induced Abortion and Breast Cancer.
“Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation,” Brinker says. “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.”
The reversal comes on the heels of news that Komen’s donations jumped 100 percent after deciding to defund Planned Parenthood, which is currently under criminal investigation in multiple venues.
Liberty Counsel Action is encouraging its members to cancel any checks and credit card contributions made in the wake of Komen’s initial decision to defund Planned Parenthood and asking any pro-life participants in Komen’s June 2 Global Race for the Cure run in Washington, D.C., to withdraw.
Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action, says anyone who sincerely wants to contribute to the fight against breast cancer has dozens if not hundreds of other options from hospitals to other nonprofit organizations, but Komen should be off the list.
“It’s a sad day for those who both seek a breast cancer cure and who respect the dignity of all human life,” Barber says. “Susan G. Komen for the Cure should recognize that abortion is not a cure for anything. Perhaps they should change the name to Susan G. Komen for the Cause. What a tragic paradox. There is mounting medical evidence that indicates abortion significantly increases the risk for breast cancer.”
Calling Komen’s decision “the coward’s way out,” Barber says that the decision to once again partner with Planned Parenthood was nothing more than capitulation to “tremendous left-wing political pressure.”
“They have chosen death over life—cancer over cure,” says Barber. “Instead of showing courage, they caved. Komen is now part of the breast cancer problem rather than the solution.”
