With October as the month for breast cancer awareness and Komen for the Cure, which donates to the Planned Parenthood abortion business, holding events across the country, pro-life groups are taking a more active stance speaking out about the problems with the organization.
Texas Right to Life has launched a new effort, “Pink Ribbon Scandal, A warning to Pro-Lifers about Susan G. Komen’s ‘race against Life.”
“October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and men and women clad in pink will gather to mourn, celebrate victories of healing, and express solidarity in their goal to eradicate breast cancer by participating in Susan G. Komen Foundation-sponsored races to fundraise for this worthy cause. Susan G. Komen, however, compromises its own mission to find a cure for breast cancer by associating with Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider,” the pro-life group says. “Texas Right to Life urges Susan G. Komen Foundation to stop sponsoring Planned Parenthood immediately and to start benefiting real health clinics for women. Furthermore, Texas Right to Life calls on Pro-Life individuals to boycott the Susan G. Komen Foundation and its ‘Race for the Cure’ until Komen severs all ties and affiliations with Planned Parenthood.”
The concerns over Komen are more than its donations to Planned Parenthood — which totaled $730K in 2009 and $569K in 2010.
“Many studies have linked an increased risk of developing breast cancer after an abortion, yet both Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood deny the risk abortion poses to breast health,” TRTL says.
Elizabeth Graham, the director of Texas Right to Life, says that Susan G. Komen’s partnership with Planned Parenthood is “deceiving and troubling.”
“While Komen has duped the public as a leader in breast cancer awareness and research funding, by linking arms with Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, they defeat the purpose of fighting breast cancer,” Graham said.
According to the most recent data available from the Guttmacher Institute and Planned Parenthood, Planned Parenthood did over 25 percent of all abortions in the United States in 2008, a total of 324,008 abortions. In that same year, they performed zero mammograms.
Graham commented, “Komen is racing to find a cure while supporting an agency that increases the occurrence of breast cancer. An organization devoted to ending breast cancer and improving women’s health can hardly do so while supporting an abortion giant.”
“One example of this medical and ideological confusion can be found right here in Texas. Susan G. Komen of Dallas has awarded Planned Parenthood of North Texas $92,800 this year for breast health education materials and 650 mammograms for low-income and uninsured women,” Graham explained. “The website for Planned Parenthood of North Texas offers “free mammography services” to eligible women, yet investigative phone calls to each North Texas Clinic reveal that isn’t true. After a consultation at Planned Parenthood, mammogram clients are referred to real mammogram clinics. Planned Parenthood, with funds from the Komen grant, pays for the mammograms but does not actually perform them.”
“Texas Right to Life believes that women would be better served if the Susan G. Komen Foundation benefited legitimate health centers and research programs that actually perform mammography services. Funneling money through an abortion business in no way fights or decreases breast cancer, but rather undoes any progress that may have been accomplished by Komen,” she concluded.
Brian Harris, the president of Tennessee Right to Life, also recently outlined the problems his group has with Komen in a recent email.
“Some at the Komen Foundation have attempted to confuse pro-life supporters by claiming that Foundation funds distributed to Planned Parenthood are used only for mammograms. Sadly, Planned Parenthood doesn’t even perform mammograms,” he said.
“The Komen Foundation’s continued financial support for Planned Parenthood is at odds with its heroic goal of eradicating breast cancer,” Harris continued. “A growing number of studies indicate abortion as a “known risk factor” for breast cancer, including one from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center which reports a “20 to 50 percent increased chance for breast cancer among women who had had an abortion compared to women who carried their pregnancies to term.”
“Federal tax records document that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation gave more than half a million dollars to Planned Parenthood in 2010. Until such funding is halted, Tennessee Right to Life joins life-affirming individuals, organizations and churches in urging that such funds be directed away from Komen and given instead to research groups which do not promote or fund abortion facilities in any manner,” Harris said.
The Tennessee pro-life leader says his group recommends the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, Polycarp Research Institute and Coalition on Abortion / Breast Cancer as three organizations dedicated to stopping breast cancer as ones pro-life advocates can support.
