NPR’s Bitter Disappointment: Komen Divorces Planned Parenthood

NPR’s Bitter Disappointment: Komen Divorces Planned Parenthood

via Big Journalism by Dr. Jason B. Whitman on 2/2/12

Unfortunately , Komen For The Cure is now experiencing the full fury of the Left following their apparent divorce from the murder factory that is Planned Parenthood. In keeping with their typically Leftist agenda, NPR immediately released a bitter indictment of Komen for separating from Planned Parenthood (PP).

The nation's leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates — creating a bitter rift, linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women.
The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams.

NPR's opening salvo contains the usual argument for supporting Komen's involvement with Planned Parenthood; PP's use of Komen funds for offering "breast exams" to women at their clinics. This argument contains some very serious flaws, as Jenny Erikson points out in her piece here (please note Jenny's piece has been attacked by the Left):

Sure, they say the money goes for breast health exams, but money is liquid. Once it goes into the bank, it's grouped with all the money that's in there, and then it's paid out for expenses. It's like having a dual-income household with a joint checking account. The mortgage isn't paid with one income and groceries with the other; they're both paid out of the same checking account.
Besides, Planned Parenthood doesn't even offer mammograms, which are the surest way to detect early signs of cancer. How much money do they need to be able to tell a patient, "Yup, that feels like a lump — here's the number for a place that can actually help you"? [my emphasis]

Essentially all of the funds are co-mingled meaning that they may be used for any purpose, not just breast exams. This argument is a red herring used by PP to keep their funding from Komen while trying to make Komen's involvement with them more palatable to the growing number of donors choosing not to give to Komen. Whether or not Komen acknowledges it, this was clearly a growing issue for them,

Life Decisions International includes Komen on its "boycott list" of companies and organizations that support or collaborate with Planned Parenthood. In December, Lifeway Christian Resources, the publishing division of the Southern Baptist Convention, announced a recall of pink Bibles it had sold because some of the money generated for Komen was being routed to Planned Parenthood

The author of the NPR piece goes on:

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has depicted Stearns' probe as politically motivated and said she was dismayed that it had contributed to Komen's decision to halt the grants to PPFA affiliates.
"It's hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women's lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying," Richards told The Associated Press. "It's really hurtful."

The Left and Planned Parenthood cannot look past their embrace of the culture of death to realize their mission is really not about saving lives. In fact, PP's mission is so repugnant it has to be researched to be believed. Short summaries may be found here and here.
Komen, however,  is the antithesis of PP. Komen's mission since their founding has always been about women's health and actually saving lives. In fact, since its inception in 1982, Komen has contributed nearly $1.9 billion to the fight against breast cancer.
NPR wants to emphasize where they believe the blame lies:

That investigation [by Rep. Stearns], which has no set timetable, was launched in September when Stearns asked Planned Parenthood for more than a decade's worth of documents.
Stearns, in a statement emailed to the AP on Monday, said he is still working with Planned Parenthood on getting the requested documents. He said he is looking into possible violations of state and local reporting requirements, as well as allegations of financial abuse, and would consider holding a hearing depending on what he learns.
Democrats and Planned Parenthood supporters have assailed the probe as an unwarranted political ploy.

Of course they think the probe is unwarranted. Anything that could interrupt the flow of tax-payer dollars to fund their precious sacrament of abortion is unacceptable. The reality is, not one penny of taxpayer money should be used to fund abortions. Assuring publicly-funded abortions don't happen is, of course, a political ploy to the Left, but it is something the majority of Americans oppose.
The essence of this NPR piece is that women should be embittered by the decision Komen made. They claim it will affect the ability of women to receive the proper care they need and will lead to loss of life. The reality is, Komen is not going to be impeded in their ability to provide breast care because they are going to find out what has long been known to be true; people who are generally conservative are much more generous with their own money. Planned Parenthood is a death factory, first and foremost, and will likely find it more difficult to replace the lost funds. Jenny Erikson offeres a tremendously prescient conclusion:

Understandably, some people decided to stop writing checks to Susan G. Komen in protest of their support of Planned Parenthood. Therefore the Komen people made the decision to stop funding them. If it backfires and they lose more support from this decision, they can always go back to the way things were.
Now where's my checkbook? I have a donation I'd like to make to support breast cancer research for a cure, and to say thanks to Susan G. Komen for just saying no to Planned Parenthood.
Click here to donate online.

Komen's donations are up 100% over the last two days. However, it may not be a happy ending after all as the group appears to be narrowing its earlier distance from Planned Parenthood: