Komen and Planned Parenthood

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Comments

  • covertanjou
    covertanjou Member Posts: 569
    edited February 2012
  • RetiredLibby
    RetiredLibby Member Posts: 1,992
    edited February 2012

    Thanks, coveretanjou .. The iPad is difficult to deal with on hyperlinks.

  • Enjoyful
    Enjoyful Member Posts: 3,591
    edited February 2012

    From huffingtonpost.com: 

    "But a Komen insider told HuffPost on Sunday that Karen Handel, Komen's staunchly anti-abortion vice president for public policy, was the main force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood and the attempt to make that decision look nonpolitical.

    Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with investigation criteria," the source, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, told HuffPost.  "She said, 'If we just say it's about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.'"

    Emails between Komen leadership on the day the Planned Parenthood decision was announced, which were reviewed by HuffPost under the condition they not be published, confirm the source's description of Handel's sole "authority" in crafting and implementing the Planned Parenthood policy

  • Wabbit
    Wabbit Member Posts: 1,592
    edited February 2012

    Well when all is said and done we all agree on the pertinent point.  The defunding was not about breast cancer interests ... it was about PP as an organization because they fund and provide abortions. 

    Nobody has argued otherwise ... just about whether or not it was a good thing to do.  Pro-life says yes - pro-choice says no.  

    It was however well outside of their responsibility as a tax-exempt charitable organization that is supposed to be devoted to breast cancer.   If they want to expand outside of that arena I'm sure there are legal steps they could take to do so ... create a PAC or whatever to support their views on abortion. 

  • Pompeed
    Pompeed Member Posts: 239
    edited February 2012

    I saw the same piece in the NYTimes.  It was only a matter of time before a reliable insider told the rest of the story to a journalist.  More of the history of how she was hired and why and the progress of the defund PP plan will be forth coming in the near future is my guess.  Can't keep stuff like this about a well-known non-profit under wraps.  And some outsiders with the rest of the connections will be talking to journalists too.  The whole of the scandal is going to be much bigger than what Komen has put forward so far. Think of it as an iceburg: the biggest part is below the water.  Or an onion: lots and lots of layers to peel.

  • Dansmom
    Dansmom Member Posts: 82
    edited February 2012

    All the screenings and research doesn't mean anything to a woman who doesn't have health insurance.  The money I used to send Komen is going to re-elect Obama so we can make sure health reform goes into effect.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2012

    Politics?

    Agenda?

    Who cares if anyone has health insurance?  It is not insurance that is important, it is access to CARE!!! High quality, affordable care!!!!

    Insurance is just an expensive piece of paper that too often doesn't cover what you need when you need it.

  • Enjoyful
    Enjoyful Member Posts: 3,591
    edited February 2012

    Way to be a thread-killer, Pat.  I don't know what you said, since I have you blocked, but I'm sure it was something, um, edifying.

    Dansmom, I'm also sending money to the Obama campaign, for the same reasons and more.

  • Wabbit
    Wabbit Member Posts: 1,592
    edited February 2012

    I tend to think that only people who have always had good health insurance have the luxury of thinking it's really not important.  In this country anyway. 

  • pupmom
    pupmom Member Posts: 5,068
    edited February 2012

    WR, what those people fail to remember is "there but for the grace of God go I." Having a catastrophic disease and finding oneself uninsured and ineligible for Medicaid happen ALL THE TIME. That situation can destroy lives and families in a heartbeat. Shame, shame on America for the outrage of denying so many health care.

  • shokk
    shokk Member Posts: 1,763
    edited February 2012

    Actually no one in this Country is denied health care whether or not they have health insurance or whether or not they can pay.....that is the law......and has been for years........

    Wow Enjoyful.......you seem to be a bit cranky........

    Maybe you should stop by the bar and have a cocktail.........

    shokk

  • pupmom
    pupmom Member Posts: 5,068
    edited February 2012

    People without insurance have access to the emergency room. If they are indigent, they don't pay; the rest of us do. If they have income above a certain level they may go bankrupt paying the bill. Yes, they can get health care, and, there are consequences.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2012

    And the people with lousy insurance can go bankrupt paying for care that the insurance doesn't cover, or only partially covers.

    It is not, and never was about insurance.

    It is all about access to high quality, affordable care.

    If the care is available and affordable, then insurance is a moot point. 

    Nice to have, but not imperative.

  • pupmom
    pupmom Member Posts: 5,068
    edited February 2012

    This country need Single Payer health care. Nothing else will solve our health care problems. Obama's plan is, maybe, better than nothing, but it should be much, much more.

  • suzieq60
    suzieq60 Member Posts: 6,059
    edited February 2012

    We have free breast screening over 40 or 45 in Australia compliments of the national medicare scheme. Breast screening is not covered by our Private Health Insurance. Maybe one day you won't have to rely on private non profits to get screening.

  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited February 2012
     
    This is an extremely difficult issue that will always have strong supporters on all sides.  We hope we can refocus our discussions on more supportive, positive topics.  
     
    We are looking forward to moving on.
     
    The Mods 
     
  • Pompeed
    Pompeed Member Posts: 239
    edited February 2012

                I am the first to admit I don't know Thing One about statistics.  But I do know the basics of comparative analysis.

                Faye's anaysis is bizarre: it's a comparsion of kiwi fruit to fruit flies.  Faye says that the $600K from Komen to PP is a miniscule portion of gross PP funds.  Yeah, that's true: it's a small part of a much larger whole.  And that much larger hole provides all kinds of other services to women, men and their families.  Faye makes this phoney comparison to come to the conclusion that the loss of the funds to PP is so tiny it's of little to concern to PP or the women PP serves.  A few pennies a month which any downright poverty stricken woman can easily cobble together to get herself some breast health screening services.  Never mind whehter that's actually true or not.  The comparison wasn't done for objective purporses. 

               The Komen portion is specifically provided to PP for women's breast health services.  That and only that.  So the proper comparison, if one is going to make one at all is: what is the ratio of PP expenditures specifically spent and utilized to provide breast health care for women all over the US to the funds Komen granted to PP to serve that purpose and no other. 

               

              

  • Enjoyful
    Enjoyful Member Posts: 3,591
    edited February 2012

    There are so many things to say, all of which have been said over and over and over again.  The bottom line is that the anti-choicers will always hate PP and try to defund them at every turn.  Nothing we say or do, short of a direct email from God, will change their mind.  And even then I have doubts...

    I'm going to duck out of this thread and go play elsewhere.  Discussion is futile on this topic.  And, since I'm feeling better today (gave myself an  Arimidex vacation), I'm not as likely to snap at anything that moves, or types.

    Hope everyone has a good day.  Really. 

  • Faye33
    Faye33 Member Posts: 180
    edited February 2012

    Pompeed - You are twisting what I said.  By no means do I feel the uninsured or underinsured women should come up with the difference in what Komen provided.  I clearly stated it was PP responsibility to come up with the difference.

    Scootaloo - I'm glad you are feeling better today.

  • Pompeed
    Pompeed Member Posts: 239
    edited February 2012

                 Where did I suggest that the position is that "the uninsured or underinsured women should come up with the difference?" 

                  Here is the analysis Faye offered:

    "Now, if we want the whole picture,  PP total revenues were $1.048 billion.  This makes Komen's grants about .06% of PPs total revenue.

    For a family making $50,000 a year, the Komen loss would equate to approximately $30 a year, or $0.58 a week."

                 An inavlid comparision was made between the total funds Komen grant to PP which grant was specifically designated for the provision of breast screening services to women.  Restricted for utilization to that purpose and that purpose only.

                 That sum was, for reasons of making the loss to PP seem trivial, compared to the total of PP revenues when it is well known that the total of PP revenues are utilized for a great many services provided to men, women and their children.

                 Since the comparison of the specifically granted and restricted funds to the revenue total of PP was made to deliberately yield a paltry ratio, the suggestion was then made to put that loss to women served by PP in another contect: if such a loss ratio were experienced by a family whose income was $50K per year or less that difference would hardly be felt because it would amount to mere pennies per week.  The implication: what poverty stricken woman doesn't have a few pennies a week to use for her own health care and more specifically, to use for her own breast health care. 

                 The whole analysis of comparing a small number of kiwi fruit to a huge number of unrelated fruit flies, which have no relevance at all, was cooked up and cocked up for no reason other than to make the loss of the Komen grant to PP -- and thus the loss to the women directly served and provided with breast health services by that grant -- appear trivial.

                 The ratio would be entirely different if a relevant comparision was made: relevant restricted funds compared to relevant provided funds for the restricted purpose.

                  Only goes to show: figures don't lie but figures can be innocently misintrepreted or deliberately manipulated to mislead and misguide because that is the intention. 

                 

                

                

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2012

     Pompeed wrote:

                 Where did I suggest that the position is that "the uninsured or underinsured women should come up with the difference?" 

    in your previous post you wrote:

    "A few pennies a month which any downright poverty stricken woman can easily cobble together to get herself some breast health screening services".

    Faye was quite clear that she expected PP to make up any difference in funding from other sources to cover the services if they were truly services that PP believed to be important, and not just a smokescreen to obscure PP's other activities. 

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2012
  • Pompeed
    Pompeed Member Posts: 239
    edited February 2012

                It's quite clear what the motive for the comparision was: to prove that nothing much would be lost to thousands of women where politics and political motives are at stake.  

                By making the comparison, the political motives are defended and by being defended the motives are given far greater value and weight than access to breast care resources which could save women's lives. 

                What's the upshot?  As between the two, women's lives are expendable as long as they are expended to achieve particular political purposes.

                Pretty transparent.

                

  • Pompeed
    Pompeed Member Posts: 239
    edited February 2012

                hillck has it correct: there is no basis to claim that PP hides anything.  There is plenty of evidence -- and more will be coming -- to show that Komen's intention was smoke and mirrors and obfuscation. 

                It's in Handel's own email notes to the other insiders: just baffle them with BS and no one will question what's really going on and the political interests intended to be served. 

                Puts an end to all possible speculation and guess work: can't get to more of the truth as to the political motivation for the policy than the words of the chief political motivator of the policy.  Smoking gun and the bullet it fired.

  • Faye33
    Faye33 Member Posts: 180
    edited February 2012

    Pompeed - I would really appreciate it if you quit editing your posts after the fact.  Editing for spelling and punction... OK... editing to change what you said, because you were called out on it, I feel, is deceptive, at best.  If you wish to clarify what you were saying, please make a new post, so people reading the thread have a clear idea what was said and in what context.  Thank you!

  • Faye33
    Faye33 Member Posts: 180
    edited February 2012

    Nevermind, Pompeed, I miss read your post... my bad... I'm sorry.

  • Pompeed
    Pompeed Member Posts: 239
    edited February 2012

    Faye33 wrote: "Pompeed - I would really appreciate it if you quit editing your posts after the fact.  Editing for spelling and punction... OK... editing to change what you said, because you were called out on it, I feel, is deceptive, at best.  If you wish to clarify what you were saying, please make a new post, so people reading the thread have a clear idea what was said and in what context.  Thank you!"

                  I wasn't called out on anything.  By anyone.  If the people reading have a concern about what I write or what I write causes some confusion and requires clarification, seems to me that readers are free to ask questions or raise a concern on their own.  I don't see that one contributor is in a position to speak for all or direct traffic or tell others how to write.

                  If there is some irritation about what I write, there is an "ignore" function which anyone can use.

  • LovesChristmas-Barb
    LovesChristmas-Barb Member Posts: 706
    edited February 2012

    She already said she was wrong and apologized.

  • bdavis
    bdavis Member Posts: 6,201
    edited February 2012

    Well.. this thread has gone no where in my mind... I keep reading the same debates and still believe that this issue should have NOTHING to do with abortions, pro-life, pro-choice view points... There seem to be extremists here,and I must move on and out... It is just going in circles and not productive for the reason I THOUGHT we were all on here, supporting a common goal for a CURE for cancer and for research.

    Good luck ladies.

  • AnneW
    AnneW Member Posts: 4,050
    edited February 2012

    No point in joining the fray, as most people know where I stand on these issues.

    Probably time for the Mods to lock this baby down...

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