Nancy G. Brinker, the founder and CEO of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure (SGK), was in full damage control yesterday.
She was all over the airways trying in vain to explain that SGK’s decision to withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood (PP) had nothing to do with the polarizing issue of abortion. And you’ve probably seen its “3-Day” commercials competing for air time this week with political ads for Republican presidential wannabes.
SGK of course is the foundation responsible for the pinking of America, where even men (like me) proudly wear everything from pink ribbons to pink tennis shoes to demonstrate support for its core mission: to prevent, treat, and ultimately “end breast cancer forever.”
No doubt you’re aware of its mega-fundraising “Race for the Cure” events, which is the largest series of 5k runs in the world, with millions participating annually. These and other events help SGK raise hundreds of millions every year for the cause.
In turn SGK uses those millions to fund thousands of organizations that provide information and preventative-care services related to breast cancer. And most prominent among those organizations is/was Planned Parenthood (PP).
In fact, it is fair to assert that PP is to women’s reproductive care what SGK is to breast care. But, in addition to breast screenings, PP provides a host of other services related to sex education, maternal care and children’s health – most notably to the poor. Naturally, most prominent among these services are those related to contraception and abortions. And therein lies the rub:
Because, by all accounts, SGK decided to suspend funding for PP pursuant to the political ideology of its new vice president for public policy, Karen Handel. Handel, you see, is a pro-life Republican activist who made an unsuccessful run for governor of Georgia on a stridently anti-abortion platform. More to the point, she’s on record declaring that:
…since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.
(New York Times, February 1, 2012)
SGK insists that the decision was made pursuant to new guidelines which prevent it from funding any organization under investigation. It’s bad enough, though, that SGK knew that PP would be the only organization affected by these guidelines. But it smacks of a political jihad when one considers that the investigation in this case is being trumpeted by rabid Republicans in Congress who, like Handel, believe PP’s mission is akin to a holocaust against the unborn.
They are purportedly looking into whether PP is using federal funds for abortions, which would violate the Hyde Amendment. But nobody believes there’s any basis in fact to even suspect that PP is doing so.
Frankly, anyone who knows anything about Washington politics knows that Republicans investigating the healthcare activities of PP is rather like Iranians investigating the democratic activities of the United States.
This is why the patently contrived decision to target PP has incited such widespread outrage. For nothing demonstrates how politically motivated it was quite like the number of senior executives who have resigned in protest – most notable among them SGK’s top public health official, Mollie Williams.
Unfortunately, this cat fight is only stoking partisan divisions among those involved in women’s health to mirror the divisions that exist between Republicans and Democrats on every other issue in public life these days. It utterly destroys the prevailing notion that when it comes to women’s health, including abortion rights, women are relatively united.
Nonetheless, the fact that both Barbara Bush and Laura Bush made no secret of their support for abortion rights during the respective presidencies of their Republican husbands indicates just how potentially alienating SGK’s decision is. Moreover, this means that it will have a very difficult time retaining the goodwill and participation of women across the political spectrum if it stays on this new anti-abortion course.
In the meantime, we have the spectacle of rich pro-choice supporters (like NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg) opening their wallets to support PP in protest, and rich pro-life supporters opening theirs to egg-on SGK. Not to mention the posturing by Democratic politicians calling on SGK to reverse its decision competing with the posturing by Republican politicians calling on it to stay the course.
Indeed, PP and SGK will soon be distinguished more by their involvement in partisan politics than by their involvement in women’s health, which will make them just like the Super PACs that have turned politics from the art of compromise into a bloodsport between latter-day gladiators.
So stay tuned for PP’s Race for the Cure events to compete SGK’s. Hell, if this isn’t a clear sign of the decline of America, I don’t know what is.
UPDATE
SGK reverses course
(Friday 12:40 pm)
It must have been something I wrote. Because SGK issued the following statement just moments ago:
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. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants.
(Associated Press, February 3, 2012)
Of course, SGK’s insistence that political pressure had nothing to do with this dramatic about face is even less credible than its insistence that political ideology had nothing to do with its decision to defund PP in the first place.
Anyway, here’s to the two organizations kissing, making up, and continuing their wholesome, non-partisan collaboration on matters pertaining to women’s health.
Now one wonders what kind of pressure pro-life supporters will mount in a vain effort to regain the upper hand….