Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the largest international nonprofit organization working to fight breast cancer, has been in the political hot seat this week past. It is hard to imagine that this renowned organization comprised of volunteers, breast cancer survivors and activists,which has raised over $1.9 billion since its establishment in 1982, could be the subject of any scandal, but rumors began to fly when plans to cut funding grants to Planned Parenthood became public Tuesday, Jan. 31.
Anti-abortion groups have long been criticizing Komen’s support of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading sexual and reproductive health care provider and advocate, which notoriously provides abortions in addition to all of their other sexual health services. These groups have threatened to disrupt and protest various Komen events, and have also tried to get prominent donors to pull their support from Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
In an effort to address the concerns and threats of anti-abortion groups, Komen leaders discussed the possibility of disqualifying grant applicants who were facing a federal, state or local investigation. This new rule would have exclusively affected Planned Parenthood, who is not the subject of any criminal investigation, but rather the subject of a congressional inquiry made by Republican congressman Cliff Stearns of Florida under pressure from anti-abortion groups. The Komen foundation was prepared to enforce this rule by cutting $650,000 from 16 Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Regardless of your stance on abortion, it is shameful that even health care providers and charitable organizations cannot escape the extreme partisan divisiveness that permeates national discourse. Has everything become so black and white that the entire spectrum of sexual health can be boiled down into one hot-button issue?
Planned Parenthood helps to provide roughly 750,000 breast exams and 770,000 Pap tests a year, both of which are critical in detecting cancer. In addition to cancer screenings, Planned Parenthood provides over 4 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. To completely dismiss the entire organization that is working to improve the sexual health of millions of Americans based solely on the 3% of controversial work they perform regarding abortions seems harmful and narrow-minded.
If anti-abortion activists would like to put an end to abortion, they need to take their battle to Washington in an effort to change the laws, instead of using political bullying tactics to disrupt the good and legal work of these organizations promoting sexual health. It is especially upsetting because the people most affected will be the low-income individuals who rely on Planned Parenthood as an affordable sexual health care provider.
Thankfully, the American public has had enough of these polarizing political games and responded with an outcry of criticism regarding the Komen foundation’s decision. On Thursday Feb. 2, there were over 460,000 Tweets on the matter, and by the end of the week 1.3 million posts and hashtags referencing the issue. In addition to the general public uproar several prominent donors, scientists and medical professionals criticized Komen’s decision.
In response to the criticism, the Komen foundation reversed it’s decision on Friday, Feb. 3. I am relieved to see the Komen foundation respond to the public and decide to resist the bullying of a polarized political society. As we head into an election year and the political debate gets even more heated, hopefully we can continue to look at the bigger picture instead of obsessing over the handful of hot-button issues that divide us.