More women will die of breast cancer because of SGK decision

Twitter and Facebook are humming with comments from women outraged about the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides health services such as mammograms for low-income women.

SGK continues to deny that the reason for ending its annual $600,000 donation to PP is the work of pro-life Karen Handel who became senior VP last May. Self-described Mama Grizzly Handel ran for governor of Georgia unsuccessfully on an anti-Planned Parenthood platform.

SGK insists it cut the funding because it embraced a new rule that says it cannot fund any organization that is currently under investigation by Congress. But The Atlantic is reporting that SGK is lying. The magazine says insiders who were there when the decision was made invented this new rule as a fig leaf to justify its heavy-handed pro-life stance. And it seems non-sensical to adopt a rule that would give right-wing zealots the chance to kill donations to worthy groups just by launching a witch hunt.

Only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s funding is for abortion. Yet pro-lifers have made its destruction their rally cry, despite the fact that killing Planned Parenthood would deny women to access to life-saving tests like Pap smears and breast cancer screenings. It strains credulity to believe that Handel was not instrumental in eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood even though doing so would put more women at risk of dying of breast cancer.

SGK had already ruffled feathers for its aggressive protection of its copyright of the phrase Race for the Cure. But that’s a minor kerfuffle compared to the current crisis that puts Race for the Cure events across the country at risk as hundreds if not thousands of women have decided never to write a check to SGK again.