Susan G Komen ends Planned Parenthood grants

[McJag]

Several decades ago I went to an abortion clinic in Virginia. It was during a time when they had been threatening to bomb the various clinics down there. setting fires etc. So I had the procedure done with no anesthesia whatsoever so I could run out of the building if anything happened. It was very unpleasant. I don't understand why these people think the unborn are so much more important than the people who are already here. I too was shocked at many of the comments on the FB page.

That is why we must remain vigilant. What you had to go through was horrid.
Now, consider those before you who had no where to turn expect total back alley.
We must stay on guard. I am sure a message has been sent, not only to SGK but to a lot of politicians in more than just our country.

I am pleased to see JCP didn't cave to the Million Moms & drop Ellen. That saved a lot of effort.

[Trixie]

Just wanted to tell you all how awesome you are! I was reading this subject on my hometown facebook page and I was appalled to realize I'm neighbors with some of the people. At least I can come to GR to reaffirm my faith that there are some intelligent, compassionate people in the world.

[angelais]

Just wanted to tell you all how awesome you are! I was reading this subject on my hometown facebook page and I was appalled to realize I'm neighbors with some of the people. At least I can come to GR to reaffirm my faith that there are some intelligent, compassionate people in the world.

GR seriously needs a "like" button.

[DeChayz]

My favorite anti-PP comments are those that rant about all the "people" and "children" PP have "killed". They're CLUMPS OF CELLS, not PEOPLE, retards.

[olivia]

My favorite anti-PP comments are those that rant about all the "people" and "children" PP have "killed". They're CLUMPS OF CELLS, not PEOPLE, retards.

Right, and when the clumps of cells becomes a born child, they couldn't care less. Women's health? Not worth a tiny fetus.

That's when their rhetoric hits the wall. Are they raising money to provide cheap birth control, pelvic exams and cancer screenings for women? Or are they fostering the unwanted children floundering in the system? No.

I won't listen to a single word of the Right on reproductive rights (well, on anything actually) until they can tell me what they intend to replace it with. Nothing. Just more rhetoric from the party of "No".

[MontanaMama]

I think this sums it all up nicely...


False Apology: At Least Four Komen Recipients -- and Sponsors Like Bank of America -- Are 'Under Investigation'
Posted 04-02-2012 12:49 AM EST


The Susan G. Komen Foundation has reversed its defunding of Planned Parenthood, at least temporarily, but the falsehoods and hypocrisy haven't ended. An investigation has revealed that at least four other organizations have received Komen money while under federal investigation, while others have been the subjects of recent investigations, and a lot of the money Komen hands out was provided by sponsors who were also being investigated.
The Komen Foundation hasn't been leveling with the public. Even its apology was disingenuous.
The organization is behaving more like Bank of America, one of its most prominent sponsors. Like a Wall Street bank, its using its monopoly power to crush competitors, dictate its terms to the public, and to speak both disingenuously and hypocritically to the American people. The Susan G. Komen organization has become "too big to fail."
"Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation," said a statement issued today. But the evidence shows that no such policy was ever enforced for anyone but Planned Parenthood.
"We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political," the statement continued. Yet criminal investigations were ignored, and only the politically-based investigation resulted in action. The only logical explanation is that this policy never existed, or was invented solely for the purpose of defunding Planned Parenthood.
Monopoly to Monopoly
And while the alleged policy was aimed at grant recipients, not donors, the charity's increasingly implausible claim reeks of hypocrisy when the sources of its money are considered. Several large Komen donors are also the targets of past or current investigations. Bank of America, which is prominently displayed on the Komen website as a member of its "Million Dollar Council Elite," has paid tens of millions to settle fraud charges in recent years as the result of "federal investigations."
The Susan G. Komen Foundation targeted Planned Parenthood for moral scorn to justify a decision that we now know to be political, while accepting money from organizations that are under investigation and giving to others in the same condition.
That's what happens when a single charity pursues and achieves excessive control over one area of need. Like B of A and other large banks, it's a monopoly that's leveraging its size and influence improperly. Case in point: The foundation chose to cut funding for stem cell research. Given its size and dominance, that's a serious threat to this critical avenue of research.
The Komen website includes a sales pitch to corporate donors which notes that "Americans believe it's more important than ever for companies to be socially responsible... In fact, 83 percent of Americans wish more of the products, services and retailers they use would support causes... "
It's now clear that the foundation has a double-standard about who it gives money to and receives money from, and no compunction about using its well-known (and well-guarded) name to provide marketing clout and the appearance of good behavior to some bad corporate actors. And when it came to Bank of America and Komen, it was a case of one monopoly helping another.
Double Standard
In the aftermath of its move to defund Planned Parenthood, Susan G. Komen officials said it had adopted a new policy of refusing to fund any institution that was under federal investigation. CEO Nancy Brinker (who travels first-class at foundation expense, according to financial documents filed with the government) put it even more broadly when she said that the group had the "right to cancel if a group is under investigation" -- which presumably means any investigation.
Despite the new presence of a Sarah Palin-endorsed anti-choice politician as its public policy director, and despite new revelations that it quietly stopped funding stem cell research, the Komen Foundation continues to insist this isn't a politically motivated move. They claim they would cut funds for any organization that's under investigation.
The easiest way to defuse the controversy would have been to list other groups that were losing funding under the same policy. They didn't, which strongly suggests no others have been affected. And look who receives Kamen funds and hasn't lost funds.
Based on its latest legal filings, which is nevertheless only a partial listing of grantees, a casual review reveals five organizations which are under federal investigation yet still receive Komen funds. There may be many more; this is what a quick read-through revealed.)
Before we begin, let's be clear: We're not suggesting that these institutions don't do terrific work in the search for a cancer cure, or that their funding should be compromised in any way by the existence of these investigations. The purpose of this exercise is strictly to demonstrate that the Komen Foundation's stated reason for slashing Planned Parenthood funding is demonstrably false.
That said, here are the institutions whose current or recent investigations seem to undermine the "under investigation" rationale for defunding Planned Parenthood.
Harvard University is currently under federal investigation for allegedly discriminating against Asian-Americans and is also being investigated for violations of the Animal Welfare Act after a monkey died in its research labs.
Yale University is currently under federal investigation for failing to adequately address sexual misconduct and harassment.
Columbia University is currently under federal investigation for religious discrimination.
The University of Texas was the subject of an IRS investigation regarding its executive salaries and compensation.
Massachusetts General Hospital paid a million dollars last year after an investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding HIPAA (patient privacy) violations.
The Komen foundation also continues to give funding to the University of Madison, where a cancer researcher was forced to resign after internal investigations disclosed unacceptable conflicts of interest. And while we were conducting this research, Adam Serwer at Mother Jones noted that Penn State is also receiving Komen funding while it is under investigation.
The Million-Dollar Council Elite...
When it comes to federal investigations, a review of its business partners is even uglier. Consider the corporate members of its "Million Dollar Council Elite":
Ford Motor Corporation has been the subject of multiple federal investigations in the last two years alone. Probes involved defective floor mats on Ford Fusions, a jack defect on the Ford Freestar that was said to have caused at least one death, and an investigation of multiple potential defects on the Ford F-150 truck.
American Airlines is currently locked in a dispute with the Pension Fund Guaranty Agency, which filed $91 million in liens against the company the day before yesterday. The federal agency accusing Americans of "pocketing pension relief money instead of putting it into workers' retirements," as the Associated Press reported. No doubt there was a "federal investigation" before these liens were filed.
And while breast cancer is a great cause, one might well also ask why a corporation that says it's too broke to honor its pension obligations belongs to the "Million Dollar Council Elite" program.
... Million Dollar Settlements, That Is
But nobody outdoes Bank of America, which is featured on both the Komen Foundation's "Million Dollar Council Elite" page, and on its plain old, non-elite "Million Dollar Council."
Bank of America is currently under federal investigation regarding charges it has illegally foreclosed on borrowers. It stands accused of committing widespread mortgage fraud, including what was allegedly the largest "robo-signing" operation of them all. ("Robo-signing" is the falsification of court documents, and the filing of false court documents is perjury.)
Bank of America has settled fraud charges with SEC six times in the past 15 years. Each settlement was the result of a "federal investigation." With each settlement it promised to stop committing the same form of fraud. And yet it has done so anyway, at least five additional times.
Bank of America hasn't just been the target of many federal investigations. It "significantly hindered" one of those investigations. As Shahien Nasipour noted in a summary of the mountain of evidence against the bank, a federal auditor stated that "HUD's internal watchdog issued two subpoenas requesting documents and information, and what was returned was incomplete, had conflicting information, and in some cases, the bank provided excerpts of documents rather than the complete record." An auditor also said that the bank refused to permit a walk-through of its mortgage documents unit.
The HUD's internal audit -- a federal investigation -- concluded that the bank knowingly provided the U.S. government with false information. A federal investigation of the bank's foreclosure activity is ongoing, and was recently joined by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Any organization that cuts ties to Planned Parenthood over investigations while advertising its ties to Bank of America is guilty of gross hypocrisy.
Resist -- But Give if You Can
It would be tragic if women's cancer services lost funding as a result of this scandal. But the Susan G. Komen Foundation story appears to be one of power abuse, corporate cronyism, and politicized decision-making. The Komen group has been extremely aggressive in its attempts to force other such groups off the field so that it can dominate breast cancer giving.
That's too much power for one organization to have -- especially if it has shown itself to be unwilling to act transparently and change direction when it abuses that power. Stem cell research is a highly promising avenue for a cure. If the organization that's moved so aggressively to dominate funding refuses to fund it, an approach has been partially obstructed that might eventually save millions of lives in the future.
I'm not rich, but I plan to give more money to both Planned Parenthood and another cancer research organization as a result of this incident. I hope others will do the same. This could all turn out for the best, especially if the fall of one organization raises breast cancer awareness and increases support for treatment and research.

[Butterfly]

Montana, do you have a link...I would like to share it on FB & Twitter.

[McJag]

Montana, do you have a link...I would like to share it on FB & Twitter.

I think this is it:
News for At Least Four Komen Recipients -- and ...

[Butterfly]

Thanks, McJag!

[MontanaMama]

Montana, do you have a link...I would like to share it on FB & Twitter.

I pulled it off my HuffPo app, and haven't figured where to grap the links from there yet.

[MontanaMama]

Not editing because ut's too lng, not more from huffingtonpost.com




Laura Bassett
lbassett@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting
Karen Handel, Susan G. Komen's Anti-Abortion VP, Drove Decision To Defund Planned Parenthood
First 05-02-2012 04:22 PM EST***|***Updated: 05-02-2012 12:00 AM EST


WASHINGTON -- Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nation's leading anti-breast-cancer charity, has insisted that its since-reversed decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood arose from a routine change in criteria for grant eligibility that had nothing to do with abortion politics.
But a Komen insider told HuffPost on Sunday that Karen Handel, Komen's staunchly anti-abortion vice president for public policy, was the main force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood and the attempt to make that decision look nonpolitical.
"Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with investigation criteria," the source, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, told HuffPost. "She said, 'If we just say it's about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.'"
Emails between Komen leadership on the day the Planned Parenthood decision was announced, which were reviewed by HuffPost under the condition they not be published, confirm the source's description of Handel's sole "authority" in crafting and implementing the Planned Parenthood policy.
Handel's strategy to cut off Planned Parenthood involved drafting new guidelines that would prevent Komen from funding any organization that was under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. Since Planned Parenthood is currently the target of a congressional inquiry prompted by House Republicans into the way it uses government funds, the family planning provider would have been immediately disqualified from receiving new Komen grants.
After the initial uproar when news of the decision broke, the story that Komen told the public was that the cut-off was unrelated to a political agenda against Planned Parenthood.
"While it is regrettable when changes in priorities and policies affect any of our grantees, such as a long-standing partner like Planned Parenthood, we must continue to evolve to best meet the needs of the women we serve and most fully advance our mission," the charity said in a statement this past Tuesday.
Americans United for Life and other pro-life groups have been pressuring Komen for years to cut ties with Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics offer abortions, even though none of Komen's money was used toward abortion services. Handel's internal strategy, the Komen source told HuffPost, was to exaggerate those attacks and use them to convince the leadership that funding Planned Parenthood was a political liability.
"Komen's been dealing with the Planned Parenthood issue for years, and you know, some right-wing groups would organize a protest or send out a mailing every now and then, but it was on a low simmer," the source said. "What Karen's been doing for the past six months is ratcheting up the issue with leadership. Every time someone would even mention a protest, she would magnify it, pump it up, exaggerate it. She's the one that kept driving this issue."
Handel and Komen President Elizabeth Thompson didn't respond to requests for comment.
The source said Handel submitted a final version of the new grant criteria to Komen leadership in November, and the board approved it in December, at which point Komen's top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned "on the spot."
"It was apparent to everyone in the organization that Karen was doing everything in her power to defund Planned Parenthood," the source said, "and that's why Mollie Williams quit."
Williams has previously declined to comment on why she left, but she told National Journal that she respects the work of Planned Parenthood.
But the criteria did gain the support of Komen's top executives and board. And in an interview with HuffPost, board member John D. Rafaelli, a Democratic lobbyist and a supporter of Planned Parenthood's mission, took responsibility for the changes. As the only lobbyist on the board, he told HuffPost, he should have anticipated the political fallout.
"Honestly, I didn't think it through well enough," Rafaelli said. "We don't want to be pro-choice or pro-life; we want to be pro-cure. We screwed up, I'm saying it. We failed to keep abortion out of this, and we owe the people in the middle who only care about breast cancer and who have raised money for us an apology."
The backlash against Komen was intense, including threats of violence, angry letters from members of Congress and public rebukes from political figures such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The charity struggled to deal with the pressure, especially in a face-off against Planned Parenthood, an organization whose fine-tuned political team has experience in these high-pitched, high-stakes debates.
It was speculated that Komen founder Nancy Brinker hired her friend Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush, to help her handle the crisis. But Fleischer told HuffPost that he had no part in guiding Komen's strategy on this issue except to recommend an outside crisis management firm.
"It's just sad for everybody concerned," he said on Friday. "Komen is a great group, but politically speaking, they're no match for Planned Parenthood."
The Komen insider agreed with Fleischer's assessment.
"Komen's not equipped to spend its days fighting political battles," the source said. "Abortion is not our issue, and I think [leadership] tried to finesse a way out of it, and this investigation criteria was the solution. And it blew up in their faces. They were just naive in the face of [the] incredibly sophisticated Planned Parenthood operation."
Stunned by the fallout, Komen leadership decided within three days to reverse the Planned Parenthood decision and apologize. But the Komen insider said Handel was furious about the cave and fought against it up until the point that it was announced Friday morning.
"It became clear Thursday night that something had to give," the source said. "Nancy Brinker, Liz Thompson, the board, and leadership were saying, 'We're really worried about Komen's mission if we don't figure this out.' But Karen was still arguing against it as of Friday morning -- she was horrified that we were caving, she said. She's politically tone-deaf."
In light of the political damage and the abrupt reversal of the Planned Parenthood funding decision, pressure has mounted inside Komen for Handel to resign.
"Everybody in the organization wishes she would do the right thing," the Komen insider said.
So far, Handel hasn't indicated an intention to step down. Nor does it appear that she's been formally asked to do so. But as a result of her efforts, Komen has been left reeling and its reputation as a top charity endangered.
"We're under attack. We're getting threats of violence," the source said. "It's devastating."

[louiswinthorpe111]

Komen is a great group, but politically speaking, they're no match for Planned Parenthood."
The Komen insider agreed with Fleischer's assessment.
"Komen's not equipped to spend its days fighting political battles," the source said. "Abortion is not our issue, and I think [leadership] tried to finesse a way out of it, and this investigation criteria was the solution. And it blew up in their faces. They were just naive in the face of [the] incredibly sophisticated Planned Parenthood operation."

I'm kind of offended by this statement, because it insinuates that PP created the uproar, instead of the average citizens, such as myself who donated to PP instead. It was the people the created the uproar, not PP. Truthfully, I think PP was a little shocked that they got as much support as they did.

[greysfang]

This is a "poor sgk" spin article. Poor sgk can't go toe to toe politically with the pp political team. Bullshit.

[McJag]

I wish Nancy Brinker had the guts to fire her point blank. They will never recover from this. Some of this outrage should sink in Karen Hanels pea brain. And a lot of political power houses. They understimated the core backers, a lot who are gone forever.

[McJag]