In a provocative and honest commentary piece, The Grio’s Daniella Gibbs Leger takes the Susan G. Komen Foundation to task for their alleged politically-driven financial attack on Planned Parenthood.
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As previously reported on NewsOne, when Komen implemented criteria that bars them from providing grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities, Planned Parenthood came under intense scrutiny.
Since the organization is the focus of an inquiry spearheaded by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), in efforts to determine if public money was illegally spent on funding abortions, the life-saving partnership between the bastions of women’s health was nullified by Komen. However, in the wake of explosive controversy and negative attention that the foundation obviously wasn’t expecting, they quietly back-pedaled on their decision.
In a surprising twist, conservative Karen Handel, who lost a gubernatorial race in Georgia in 2010 running on a strict anti-abortion and anti-Planned Parenthood platform, resigned from her position as Komen’s vice-president — after being there less than a year — when her conservative political affiliation was deemed the reason for the sudden break with Planned Parenthood.
Leger paints a vivid picture of the struggles women of color go through to receive adequate healthcare and her mistrust in Komen’s sincerity as it pertains to future grants being provided to Planned Parenthood.
There are women who cannot afford to see a doctor when they are extremely sick, let alone for preventative care like a mammogram.
For women of color, the breast cancer stats are still dire. Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than any other race. Latinas are more likely to have large, late-stage tumors. And women of color are more likely to not have adequate health care coverage than white women.
And that’s where Planned Parenthood comes in. In many communities across the country, they are the only source of health care for women, serving almost 3 million women, men, and young people annually. They provide preventative care and yes, reproductive care. That’s really what this is all about, isn’t it?
Komen claims that they pulled their funding because of the “investigation” going on in Congresshat is complete malarkey. The right-wing in Congress has been fighting to take away Planned Parenthood’s funding for years because a mere 3 percent of the services they provide are abortions.
Maybe Komen was spooked by the pink-bible outrage that happened when conservative religious leaders found out that Komen gives money to Planned Parenthood. Forget the fact that no federal money goes toward providing abortions, and of course the Komen money never went toward that.
Read more at The Grio.
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