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You may recognize this pink ribbon breast cancer charity as the sponsor of the "Race for the cure" held in several cities each fall. With the revelations that Planned Parenthood has been illegally selling aborted babies and baby parts, the Komen Foundation continues to be criticized for funding this so-called "Women's Health" organization.
Although the Komen Foundation tries to minimize their giving to Planned Parenthood, the foundation lost what could have been nearly $5 million in income from sales of a commemorative coin. It seems that this "minor" but seemingly inseparable link to Planned Parenthood was enough to convince the U.S. Congress in July 2015 to pull the commemorative coin bill from the House floor... because it would funnel money to Susan G. Komen which gives grants to Planned Parenthood. Why is the bond between the Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood so strong?
The Susan B. Komen Foundation says that the nearly half billion dollar grants to Planned Parenthood do not fund abortions - the same thing that Planned Parenthood says about government grants. However, those grants free up other money to be used for abortions.
The Komen Foundation statement regarding the failed coin bill includes this confusing information;
"Susan G. Komen Affiliates fund breast cancer screening and outreach programs at 11 Planned Parenthood centers in local communities, with grants totaling $465,000. This is far less than 1 percent of the nearly 1,300 community health grants that Komen and its Affiliates fund worldwide every year. In all, Komen has invested more than $1.8 billion in community health and education programs since its founding in 1982."
This statement is misleading because it ignores the fact that the grants to Planned Parenthood are much larger dollar amounts than other more numerous grants. What really matters is how much money Planned Parenthood gets, not the number of grants.
Planned Parenthood says that abortion is only 3% of what they do, but the Washington Post says that they are "using meaningless and incomplete comparisons to make their argument, and the public should be wary . . . . of their claim...". This piece suggests than an honest assessment would likely come up with a figure of at least 50%. If about 50% of what Planned Parenthood does relates to abortion, then how can about 3/4 of their budget be spent on non-abortion services? Over 40% of their budget is funded by tax dollars, and about a third is funded by organizations like the Komen Foundation - none of which is supposed to pay for abortions. The New York Post says this about the 3% lie; "Abortion is just a tiny portion of what it does exactly the way the heart is just a small muscle in the body." Alliance Defending Freedom says that the 3% statement is the most meaningless abortion statistic ever.
Most people who are open minded enough to consider the evidence including the Center For Medical Progress videos, realize that Planned Parenthood has been selling baby parts for research, and has influenced abortionists to alter the ways in which they dismember and remove babies from the womb in order to maximize the usable parts. Planned Parenthood supporters insist that because the first videos were edited, the information they contained was false. Even though the entire unedited videos are available, some people (including Democrats in Congress) refuse to watch them. A pro-abortion Facebook poster goes so far as to deny their existence: "...the videos Fiorina talked about are only in her imagination."
Even though the Los Angeles Times is a strong supporter of the Komen Foundation, a piece published last year admits; "that while the foundation depicted itself as devoted chiefly to research for a breast cancer cure, it spent only about 20% of its donations on research; the biggest expenditure category was public education, at more than 50%. Critics questioned whether "education" really should be such a heavy priority in a field where research issues remain important." In spite of these facts, supporters are still likely to believe this "pinkwashing" fact sheet from the Arkansas Komen affiliate which claims that "Race for the Cure® is unique in the fact that 100 percent of the net proceeds are allocated to our mission." This same phrase is used by many Komen affiliates.
Komen has denied the significant amount of research showing women who have an abortion are 40% more likely to get breast cancer during their lifetime. Will The Komen Foundation ever admit that there could be a link between abortion and breast cancer? Does it make sense for a breast cancer charity to fund an organization that may be causing more breast cancer?
The Family Research Council has been critical of Planned Parenthood for not only being an abortion provider and selling baby parts, but also for illegally protecting men who impregnate under-age girls. The FRC says that Planned Parenthood is "an organization that has provided cover for sex traffickers, engaged in gender targeting, and is known for dirty, bloody clinics. An explosive report... shows Planned Parenthood is involved in fetus farming and is possibly violating the partial birth abortion ban." The FRC has asked Congress to investigate the truth of these charges against Planned Parenthood.
In September, 2015 the Alliance Defending Freedom reported on several cases of Planned Parenthood
failing to report obvious cases of statutory rape. Not only is statutory rape a crime, but failing to report it is too. In many instances sexual abuse of minors continued and sometimes resulted in repeat abortions.
Planned Parenthood claims that without our tax dollars, women will not receive mammograms, birth control, and other vital health services. This FRC report counters with "...there are more than 13,000 health clinics in the country that aren't under investigation for criminal activity -- and more importantly, provide compassionate, honest, and proficient care to women in need. The idea that Republicans are fighting to take those services away is a prime example of how the liberals lie and distort the truth." Unfortunately the Republicans are not fighting hard enough, because as of mid October 2015 Planned Parenthood continues to receive government funding.
This piece claims that the manual breast exams that Planned Parenthood provides are not sufficient to detect and diagnose breast cancer.
"Planned Parenthood doesn’t provide comprehensive breast cancer screenings. They offer only manual breast exams. While these exams are sufficient to get a woman in the door and bill Medicaid for an office visit, they are insufficient to detect and diagnose breast cancer. Mammograms and MRIs are much more effective at detecting breast cancer in at-risk women... Planned Parenthood does not offer these services. Freedom of Information Act requests and the FDA’s frequently updated list of certified mammography facilities have revealed that not a single Planned Parenthood in the United States has a mammogram machine. Not one."
2017 update: Women who believe Planned Parenthood claims that their clinics offer prenatal services are disappointed to learn that Planned Parenthood only does ultrasounds as preparation for an abortion. In fact, the monitor is turned away from the patient so that the mother cannot see the image of her child.
It is bad enough that our tax dollars fund Planned Parenthood, but many of the companies we work for and buy products from also donate money to Planned Parenthood via the Komen Foundation. Total contributed goods and services for 2014 was $65 million - primarily in the form of TV, radio, and newspaper advertising according to this Komen financial statement. Wikipedia says that "Komen benefits from corporate partnerships, receiving over $55 million a year from 216 corporate sponsors."
2018 update: Planned Parenthood's annual report released in 2018 reveals a record income of $1.46 billion with about half a billion coming from taxpayers.
If black lives really matter;
Many pro-abortionists claim that pro-lifers are waging a war on women and denying them a "choice." Worldwide more females are aborted than males. Gender selection abortions are most numerous in China and India. In the U.S. at least 50% of abortions result in the death of a female. It seems to me that abortion is a war on women as well as men. A poor single woman with no support network may think that abortion is her only option. Is that really a choice? Shouldn't women be offered abortion alternatives?
While searching the internet for information on this topic, I noticed that there are many more links to the uproar over Komen defunding Planned Parenthood for a few days in 2012 than there are about Komen's continuing relationship with Planned Parenthood. This piece from July 2015 noted that three national news networks gave three times more coverage to that 2012 story than they gave to the Planned Parenthood human body part trafficking story.
I and many other conservatives are accused by liberals of having our heads in the sand, ignoring the facts presented by liberals, believing rumors to be truth, and relying on false information from biased sources. My response is that I actually do consider all sides of an issue, and several links on this page are to sources that are liberal leaning; The Washington Post, The Los angeles Times, NPR, The New York Post, The Komen Foundation, and Planned Parenthood. It is not true that I watch only Fox News. As a matter of fact, I do not pay for TV programming, and therefore cannot watch Fox News. I do however sometimes catch bits and pieces of network news from Washington D.C. and shows like "The View" which could hardly be described as conservative. I suspect that liberals believe that I ignore information from liberal sources because they assume that everyone is like them in that they ignore information that they disagree with.
To those who have had an abortion or been involved, although I believe that abortion is a sin, I am not condemning you. Jesus did not come to the world to condemn us, but to save us from our sins. We are all sinners, and we all need God's forgiveness. It is not my job as a Christian to condemn or to judge you. God will forgive you if you confess your sins.
Charles Young carries on his mother's legacy of fighting the demon of abortion and comforting the surviving victims of abortion.