The Komen-Planned Parenthood controversy has put the subject of abortion at the forefront of the public debate in a way even the March for Life and the recent 39th anniversary of Roe could only hope to have done. Even the current Republican presidential contest is paling in comparison to the intense back and forth between pro-abortion and pro-life advocates over Komen’s decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding and its potential reversal.
If LifeNews has received one email asking for our opinion about whether Komen caved, we literally have received thousands. This editorial is an attempt to put everything in perspective.
FACT: Komen is not a pro-life organization.
When Komen announced its decision to change its policy to not funding organizations that are under formal investigation or that act as pass-through agencies rather than providing direct support for women’s health, some pro-life advocates went beyond merely thanking them and acted as if Komen had suddenly become a pro-life group worthy of unreserved support. It is not.
Komen is, or is attempting to be, an abortion-neutral organization. As such, it will likely continue making decisions that disappoint pro-life advocates as it attempts to find a non-existent middle ground in the debate between those who cherish the right to life of unborn children and the well-being of their mothers and those who favor their destruction.
If you want to put your trust fully in an organization that has as its only mission the betterment of the health of women and unborn children, support your favorite pro-life group (or LifeNews) or your local pregnancy center.
FACT: We can’t say for sure whether Komen will fund Planned Parenthood.
If Komen were a pro-life organization or a government entity run by a pro-life elected official, we might be able to say with some certainty whether Komen will fund Planned Parenthood in the short or long-term. The fact is, no one knows if Komen will fund Planned Parenthood. [related]
Some pro-life advocates point to their funding process changes and the fact that Planned Parenthood faces numerous criminal investigations and say they believe Komen will not likely fund Planned Parenthood again beyond the current grants it has already approved for Planned Parenthood prior to its December 2011 decision and today’s restatement of it. others say they don’t know, and still others say Komen has caved and will likely fund the abortion organization.
Right now, the best approach is to be cautiously optimistic, to hope for the best, and to continue to lobby Komen to divest itself from the abortion industry.
Now, let’s shift attention away from Komen and put it squarely on Planned Parenthood where it belongs.
The real take for every pro-life American in this Komen-Planned Parenthood debate should be that Planned Parenthood is a business whose sole mission is selling abortions and protecting its turf come hell or high water. Every American ought to be outraged that Planned Parenthood used every trick in the book to get its friends in Congress and the media to eviscerate Komen for putting its abortion and funding interests ahead of the health of women.
FACT: Planned Parenthood does not do mammograms.
As LifeNews has exposed, the abortion business does not do mammograms and does nothing more than refer women for them in the same way that ANY primary health care provider can do. Secondly, Planned Parenthood ONLY provides health screenings for women — the kind they can do on their own, obtain directly from their primary health care provider, or obtain at any one of hundreds of legitimate health care centers that operate in every state in the nation.
FACT: Abortion is linked to breast cancer.
Medical texts reveal that increased childbearing, especially starting early before age 24, substantially reduces lifetime breast cancer risk. Abortion not only deprives women of this protection, but 52 of 68 epidemiological studies show it raises breast cancer risk.
The abortion-breast cancer link and the impact it has had is substantial, according to Professor Joel Brind, an endocrinologist at Baruch College in New York, who worked with several scientists on a 1996 paper published in the Journal of Epidemiol Community Health showing a “30% greater chance of developing breast cancer” for women who have induced abortions. Brind says abortion has caused at least 300,000 cases of breast cancer causing a woman’s death since the Supreme Court allowed virtually unlimited abortion in its 1973 case.
Do not let your anger over the Komen-Planned Parenthood debate stop you from educating the public that abortion hurts women and is a key reason (obviously not the only one) why hundreds of thousands of women have died from breast cancer.
FACT: Planned Parenthood should be investigated and should lose funding.
As LifeNews has reported on countless occasions (just do a search at the top of this web site), Planned Parenthood has been found to have engaged in fraud with taxpayer dollars, to violate abortion laws, to push teens into abortions without their parents knowledge, to cover up cases of sexual assault and child rape, to pressure women into having abortions, and to aid and abet sex traffickers. Congress and every state legislature should be called upon to conduct full investigations of Planned Parenthood to determine if they are breaking abortion laws or misusing taxpayer dollars.
Do not let Komen’s decision to fund or not fund Planned Parenthood prevent you from exposing and stopping the number one abortion business in the United States, and the world.
