Race to the bottom: After its reversal, Komen has something to prove
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On-again, off-again relationships can be so uncomfortable for friends and associates of the partners, a condition that is especially true when there's been acrimony, talk of betrayal, fights over money and circumstances that leave little doubt that one party was wronged by the other.
That's how we feel about the short-lived breakup between the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest network of breast cancer survivors and activists, and Planned Parenthood. The organizations have been natural allies for generations, with the Komen foundation's focus on trying to eradicate breast cancer and Planned Parenthood's mission of providing and advocating for women's sexual and reproductive health.
But then the Komen foundation's head got turned by a third party, the politics of abortion.
The organization had decided to cut off future financial support to the nation's largest abortion provider, even though that's just a fraction of Planned Parenthood's work and Komen's dollars were used to underwrite 170,000 breast cancer screenings for low-income women. (In Pittsburgh, the impact is not direct because the local Komen affiliate did not fund Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania.)
For some time, Komen has been under criticism from anti-abortion forces, but Nancy G. Brinker -- Komen CEO, founder and sister of its namesake -- insisted the change was not made for political reasons or to specifically target Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately, her comments were refuted by earlier statements from Komen and one of its board members, both of which said the decision was precipitated by an investigation of Planned Parenthood by Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican. Komen board member John D. Raffaelli told The New York Times that the organization feared that continuing to support Planned Parenthood would take an unacceptable toll on donations.
As a strategy, that backfired, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for Planned Parenthood poured in to compensate for the $700,000 from Komen, including a $250,000 matching grant from New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Regardless, Komen announced Friday that it was revising its intentions going forward. It said rather than disqualify any grant applicants that were under investigation by any local, state or federal authorities, it would limit the prohibition to those that are "criminal and conclusive in nature and not political."
We hope this reconciliation is permanent and that Komen's change of heart isn't motivated by how much this divorce was going to cost.
These two longtime partners have been united to ensure that all women, regardless of their financial circumstances, have access to lifesaving breast cancer screenings. Going forward, it is the Komen foundation that must prove its continued faithfulness to that goal.
First Published February 5, 2012 12:00 am
