Firestorm of protest calls for rapid response to rescue Planned Parenthood
In one of the most turbulent political turnarounds in recent news, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the most well-funded breast cancer foundation in the country, announced its decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthoodfor breast cancer screenings on Jan. 31. Komen quickly retracted the decision and issued a public apology on Feb. 3. The about-face in policy came after a storm of public and political protest in defense of Planned Parenthood.
A coalition of 25 senators, including Oregon’s Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and various women’s rights and health rights groups rallied public support, asking the Komen Foundation to reconsider its position. Women’s health advocates argued that thousands of women would consequently be denied access to breast cancer screenings due to the lack of Komen funds.
Ron Wyden posted a comment on his Facebook page stating he was “disappointed that politics has gotten in the way of women’s health,” and called on Komen to reverse direction. The next week, after Komen’s apology, Wyden posted his praise of the grassroots efforts credited with the success, saying, “Once again your voices have prompted change.”
“I think it helped bring the troubles, the pressure that’s been brought to bear on Planned Parenthood, to light,” said Portland State professor Jamie Ross, who teaches in the women, gender and sexualities program. In a phone interview with the Vanguard, Ross discussed the political challenges that Planned Parenthood has faced over pressure from anti-abortion activists and politicians.
According to Ross, the Komen protest “really focused efforts back to the other services that Planned Parenthood provides, such as sex education, healthy bodies and breast cancer screenings.” He added, “That needed to be done because Planned Parenthood had been too narrowly defined in the public eye and this allowed other issues to be highlighted.”
The Komen foundation claimed the decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood was due to congressional investigations by House of Representatives Republicans over the question of the use of federal funds. Many saw this as an example of putting politics before women’s health, including Komen’s Oregon chapter, which was critical of the decision by the greater Komen board of directors.
“Planned Parenthood gets a lot of flak from right-wing politicians and private groups,” said junior liberal arts major Alesha Suydam in an email. “Health rights for women, men, children, immigrants, the poor, have been under siege or outright ignored by politicians.”
Suydam questioned Komen’s decision: “I find it interesting that the Komen Foundation, which boasts about fighting and finding a cure for breast cancer, would threaten to withdraw their support from an institution like Planned Parenthood. For many women (mostly poor and of color) Planned Parenthood would be the first place they could find out about any illness.”
The political rhetoric against Planned Parenthood peaked in April 2011 when Arizona Republican John Kyl claimed that 90 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services were abortions, a statement he could not support with fact. This resulted in Kyl receiving a barrage of criticism that quickly morphed into public ridicule, which then prompted him to respond by saying that his statement was not meant to be a factual one and that he misspoke.
On Feb. 7, less than a week after Komen’s official apology and promise to maintain ties to Planned Parenthood, Karen Handel, Komen’s vice president for public policy, resigned. Handel was a strong advocate of cutting funding to Planned Parenthood. Before going to work for Komen, Handel ran for governor of Georgia in 2010 as a Republican. Handel’s campaign speeches, decidedly anti-abortion, decried Planned Parenthood and abortion. Her stance garnered an endorsement from Sarah Palin, despite Handel’s loss to Republican Nathan Deal.
On Handel’s resignation and public defense of Komen’s original decision, Ross said “it made people aware that not all women who care about breast cancer are aligned on all issues around women’s health, and that there were strong conservative components of the Koman foundation that many people weren’t aware of.”
The decision by Komen to reverse its position in the face of public protest is one of several recent examples of a shift in the political landscape caused by rapid-action campaigning on specific issues. The continued funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood is strong evidence of the growing influence of public outcry and its ability to quickly gather, whether in protest or support.
