Komen, the good and the bad

The pro-life movement was elated by the news yesterday that Komen for the Cure decided to suspend any further grants to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Media outlets reported that the decision was based in part on the fact that the abortion giant is currently under investigation by Congress concerning misuse of taxpayer funds, fraud and potentially violating state abortion laws. The Associated Press reported that, “Under the criteria, no further grants will be allowed unless the pending House inquiry is resolved in Planned Parenthood’s favor.”

Austin Ruse, the president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (CFAM) tells LifeNews that the AP report is wrong and that the Komen funding is not a temporarily decision based solely on the fact that Planned Parenthood is under investigation at the federal and state level.

He told LifeNews.com that the official Komen statement announcing the decision does not mention that it is conditioned based on the results of the Congressional investigation and that it’s not a temporary change based on a change in how grants are allocated — pointing to the sentence in the Komen statement saying, “We also implemented more stringent eligibility and performance criteria to support these strategies.

“What you take from the Komen statement is that it is about a change in funding criteria which does not rely on the success or failure of an investigation. You can infer from this that the decision is long-standing and not temporary,” Ruse says. “Pro-lifers should be happy today that Planned Parenthood gets yet another black-eye. Susan G. Komen Foundation should be congratulated for making this important decision.”

Good news, but much work still needs to be done epecially when you consider this story about the Denver affiliate of Komen.

On Wednesday, the Denver affiliate of Susan G. Koman for the Cure released a statement on Facebook that said it has been granted an exception.

The Denver affiliate said it plans to fund Planned Parenthood for the grant cycle of April 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013, pending the grant review committee and board of directors’ approval of their grant application.

So if it is true they were granted an exemption from the national headquarters it means Komen affiliates giving to Planned Parenthood will probably continue to do the same.

Another thing to remember is that Komen actively denies any connection between abortion and breast cancer. As per their site:

Although there has been some debate in the past about the link between abortion (also called induced abortion) and breast cancer risk, research clearly shows no link between the two [450]. Since 2003, the Board of Scientific Advisors and Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), as well as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have agreed the scientific evidence does not support a link between abortion and breast cancer [451-452]. The NCI routinely reviews the evidence on this topic and continues to agree the evidence does not support a link between the two [453].

So while we can applaud this step taken by the national organization, it is not time to let the heat off of them.

Update: Never mind, apparently they flipped back to donating to Planned Parenthood. The culture of death goes forth.