A Christian school in Texas has severed its ties with Komen for the Cure because affiliates of the breast cancer research and support organization has donated millions of dollars to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Trinity Christian School officials tell the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper the school will no longer back the Lubbock Area Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Race for the Cure because of the ties to Planned Parenthood. As LifeNews has reported, figures from August directly from the Komen for the Cure foundation show 18 affiliates of the breast cancer charity gave a total of more than $569,000 to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in 2010 alone.
Trinity Superintendent Rob Winkler told the newspaper those numbers make leaders of the school uncomfortable even though he appreciates the other work of the local Komen group, which is not one of the affiliates that has made donations to the abortion business recently. However, the newspaper indicates Lubbock Area Komen executive director Ashley Hamm said it made a donation to Planned Parenthood in 1999.
“It’s a very valuable thing that the Komen group is doing,” Winkler said. “We know what happens on a local basis, and it’s very positive. To us it’s not a local issue.”
“Our level of comfort was compromised when Planned Parenthood was involved, knowing that part of their services — part of what they offer is abortion,” Winkler said. “The fact is that when you give money to one thing, it frees up money for other services.”
Tony Thornton, CEO of the Planned Parenthood Association of Lubbock, told the Avalanche-Journal the abortion business has not applied for a local Komen grant since 2003 and has no plans to pursue a grant at this time.
The latest Komen-Planned Parenthood figures come from an American Life League study of Susan G. Komen affiliates’ federal forms 990 and they show 18 Komen affiliates gave $569,159 to Planned Parenthood in 2010, the latest year for which figures are available. That’s down from the $731,303 Komen officials publicly confirmed in October 2010, when they acknowledged that 20 of the 122 Komen affiliates gave to Planned Parenthood during the 2009 fiscal year.
Komen affiliates in Austin, Texas; Central New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; Greater Amarillo, Texas; Los Angeles County, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Salt Lake City, Utah stopped giving to the abortion business while affiliates in Dallas County, Texas; Denver, Colorado; North Carolina Triad; North Carolina Triangle; and Puget Sound, Washington all began new relationships with Planned Parenthood.
Another problem for pro-life advocates is the fact that Planned Parenthood is reducing the number of breast cancer screenings while increasing its abortions. According to the 2008 Annual Report from Planned Parenthood, breast cancer services decreased by 4% and abortion procedures increased by 6%.
The Komen spokesman confirmed last year that Komen affiliates contributed about $3.3 million to the abortion business from 2004-2009. That and the longtime ties between Komen and Planned Parenthood have resulted in some backlash from the pro-life community. The Komen annual report reveals Komen brought in almost $22 million less, or 6% less, in 2009 than it made in 2008. That could be a result of the difficult economic times or may also come as a result of pro-life advocates increasingly boycotting Komen.
Meanwhile, the newest research on the link between abortion and breast cancer reveals abortion certainly plays a role in increasing the breast cancer risk.
A January 2010 study called abortion a “known risk factor” for breast cancer and cited a study conducted by the prestigious Janet Daling group of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Daling and her colleagues showed between a 20 and 50 percent increased breast cancer risk for women having abortions compare to those who carried their pregnancies to term.
And microbiologist Dr. Gerard Nadal, who has a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from St John’s University in New York, has spent 16 years teaching science, most recently at Manhattan College, has been profiling more than 100 studies on his blog showing abortion’s link to breast cancer.
ACTION: Contact the school to thank it by going to https://www.tcslubbock.org and contact Komen for the Cure to complain about its Planned Parenthood grants at https://ww5.komen.org/Contact.aspx
