Let 'Em Have It

In the past three days, the country's cancer and abortion advocates (on both sides of the latter issue) have been all atwitter over the decision by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to pull all funding grants from Planned Parenthood.  The roughly $700k in grants to Planned Parenthood went to help provide cancers screenings, education, and women's health resources to underprivileged women.

Susan G. Komen is, perhaps, the best-known breast cancer foundation in the United States (if not the world), providing millions of men and women with loads of pink ribbons, clothing, bracelets, bumper stickers, cleats, and various other accoutrements that do nothing to either screen for or cure cancer.

Planned Parenthood, on the other hand, has recently become known as the nation's largest provider of abortions...despite the fact that abortion services amount to roughly 3% of the services they provide to women.  As per usual, no conservative has ever let little things like "facts" get in the way of their carefully crafted narrative.

The founder of Komen, Nancy Brinker, told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell that "...the responses we're getting are very, very favorable."

Except, that is, from people within the Komen organization, itself.  Since the decision, made in late December of 2011, became public, three top officials have resigned from the organization, though none have directly attributed their conveniently timed resignations to this issue.

Whether reactions from the Christofascists anti-family planning activists have been positive or not, the Komen brand may soon have to face the reality that their brand has been damaged, and while Komen may win this battle, Planned Parenthood will ultimately win the war and reap the rewards of their decision.

This leaves many people caught in the awkward position of whether or not to continue supporting Komen's "noble" cause of raising money for the disproportionately overfunded breast cancer lobby.  In this case, I think it only proper that those who disagree with this decision take a page out of the Talibangelical American Family Association playbook: boycott.

The AFA is perhaps best known for staging hapless, misguided, and ineffective boycotts against companies who support LGBT equality.  These boycotts have proved largely worthless over time, but then, they were only receiving support from their idiots membership.  A larger, more successful effort could be lobbied against Komen if those who disagree with their decision make the actually noble decision to instead donate their dollars to Planned Parenthood (the people who actually help detect and test for breast cancer).

I am not a protestor by nature.  I really don't personally care about many issues enough to waste my time shouting out about my causes when I could simply work to change the system from the inside...or wait for the inevitable bloody revolution.  What I can do with my money, however, is choose not to support the Komen organization, which won't be much of a change other than not purchasing products that donate money to them.

Ultimately, it is important for everyone to decide for themselves whether or not to continue their support. Breast cancer, while the most ridiculously overfunded cancer in the world by two-fold, has touched the lives of many friends of mine, and remains an important issue for women's health.  To cut off funding that provides those preventative resources for women who might not otherwise have that opportunity is unconscionable, regardless of whether or not abortion services are provided by the same clinics that provide those resources.

To make a donation to Planned Parenthood, please visit the following link:

Planned Parenthood Donation Page