Why does komen fund planned parenthood

The reversal came after several days of intense criticism of Komen on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Much of the backlash focused on Komen's newly hired vice president for policy, Karen Handel, who in campaigned to become governor of Georgia on a platform that included defunding Planned Parenthood at the federal level. Indeed, the decision to discontinue Planned Parenthood's funding led one top official at Komen to resign, The Atlantic reports.

Some Planned Parenthood supporters remain concerned about ambiguities in the latest Komen statement, which does not acknowledge that Planned Parenthood provides referrals for mammograms, even though Komen officials had argued that Planned Parenthood's failure to do so contributed to their decision to defund the organization.

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards had no such reservations, however. Lena H. Jeffrey Goldberg. My colleague Jeffrey Goldberg has done some reporting on the Susan G. Komen Foundation's decision to cut off Planned Parenthood because the organization was under congressional investigation. According to his sources, that was a pretext--the new rule was passed specifically in order to give the foundation a cover for cutting off Planned Parenthood.

Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. Komen, the marketing juggernaut that brought the world the ubiquitous pink ribbon campaign, says it cut-off Planned Parenthood because of a newly adopted foundation rule prohibiting it from funding any group that is under formal investigation by a government body.

Planned Parenthood is being investigated by Rep. Cliff Stearns, an anti-abortion Florida Republican, who says he is trying to learn if the group spent public money to provide abortions. But three sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process told me that the rule was adopted in order to create an excuse to cut-off Planned Parenthood.

Komen gives out grants to roughly 2, organizations, and the new "no-investigations" rule applies to only one so far. Given Handel's history of opposing Planned Parenthood, pointedly declaring herself an opponent of the organization during her failed run for Georgia governor, many blamed her for the decision to pull the breast cancer screening funds from a major women's health provider.

Planned Parenthood does not typically conduct mammograms , but performs hundreds of thousands of breast health exams annually. The fallout was predictably swift and painful for the Dallas-based nonprofit begun by former ambassador Nancy Brinker in honor of her sister. Critics accused Komen, and Handel, in particular, of politicizing the organization and thus betraying its core mission.

But "you lose good will the minute that you become embroiled in anything that has the sense of political," he said. Though many cheered Komen for the move, countless angry consumers blasted the decision. Komen reversed course within three days, and Handel soon resigned, calling Planned Parenthood a "gigantic bully. Komen quickly moved into damage control — and remained there for months.

In June , Dr. Brinker and Komen did not respond to multiple calls and emails for comment. A spokeswoman for Handel pointed to a " fact check" on her campaign website about the issue , noting it was the Komen board — not Handel— that made the decision. The move came at a particularly crucial time in the Texas abortion debate, recalls Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University.

In , the Texas Legislature voted to cut two-thirds of funding to family planning programs in a bid to stop taxpayer dollars flowing to clinics that perform abortions.

After several family planning clinics closed, the Legislature restored much of the money two years later. Planned Parenthood, like Komen, has insisted the funding is only used for breast health screenings.