Komen and Planned Parenthood

It was announced that the Susan Komen foundation will discontinue funding for Planned Parenthood breast cancer screening.  This has become a PR nightmare with many donors threatening to pull their funding from the Komen foundation.  Komen should have anticipated the backlash associated with this decision.  They should have developed other alternatives that will allow Planned Parenthood’s clients access to these services, but do not add to the support of Planned Parenthood facilities.

For many lower income people Planned Parenthood is the most accessible source for these services.  My mother had breast cancer. I loved participating in Komen sponsored events like “Race for a Cure”.   I felt that we were doing something to help combat this disease. 

As Christians we must ensure that our efforts to combat abortion do not give the misperception that we do not care about the “least of these”.  What I hope will not happen is that Komen’s principled stance will hurt funding   Komen needs to quickly get to Planned Parenthood and come up with some plan that they can both support and diffuses this PR nightmare.