Sometimes, the mighty trip themselves

The Susan G. Komen Foundation screwed up when they decided to stop funding Planned Parenthood's breast screening program. I'm hearing interesting analysis about the political leanings of the organization, the pressure they felt from anti-abortion groups, and the fallout from their decision. Mostly, though, I'm delighted that they've been taken down a notch.

When Sandy was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, I did my homework on the organizations fighting it. I was not impressed with Komen. For many years, they've been channeling good intentions and motivation into expensive events, pink ribbons, the corporatization of concern about breast cancer, and funding for screening and treatment that feeds corporate coffers. But if you say you don't support Komen, it's as if you've said you want women to die. Put "breast cancer" in your mission statement and throw the word "cure" around, and you pretty much get a free pass.

To be fair, more recently they have begun channeling some money into useful research, and certainly the Planned Parenthood funding was appropriate. But that's what they've pulled. Their objective is not actually to save women's lives, not actually to end breast cancer. Their goal, apparently, is to keep the big pink-ribbon machine running.

Take that, pink ribbon machine!
(The picture is of Sandy with our niece, Brooke, in 2005, long
before today's funding backlash. But it felt right.)

And now that machine has been jeopardized. Last year, Komen gave $680K (up from $580K in 2010) to Planned Parenthood affiliates for breast screenings and education. Planned Parenthood raised $650,000 in 24 hours as a result of the announcement that Komen had withdrawn funding. Mayor Bloomberg has announced he'll kick in another $250,000.  So they've already made up the money and then some. And the public outrage is extraordinary.

The Komen image has been tarnished. Did they really not know that a high percentage of their walkers and runners, their postage-stamp buyers, were also Planned Parenthood supporters? That women who want to save women's lives from breast cancer also want to save them from other illnesses -- and that they tend to want to save ALL women, not just those who can afford private doctors?

I hope this debacle leads the public to put more support behind other organizations, ones that are actually funding and advocating for the research that can save lives. For, example, I'd happily point folks to  the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Breast Cancer Action, the Dr. Susan Love Resarch Foundation, the Avon Foundation for Women, and the Army of Women that the last two organizations created together.

But moving past the schadenfreude, I also hope this creates a crisis within the Komen Foundation that leads to greater accountability to their donor base and the women they claim to serve. I'd love to have them lend their name and significant resources to efforts that can make a real difference. Annual mammograms and "awareness" don't save lives, but research can. I look forward to the day that Komen becomes an organization I can support wholeheartedly.