Fallout beginning at Koman

            People gave money to Komen in support of the publically stated intention or mission, i.e., the race for the cure.  I never understood who was racing whom but that is the slogan.  Komen, like other charities for various purposes, then had a large pot of money given to it annually.  It made grants to any number of other organizations from that pot, dividing up the money amongst the grantees and the administrative staff, overhead, publicity and the rest of the operations listed in the divy up pie of gross revenue and expenditures from it. 

            PP was one of a number of grantees which applied for funds and received funds.  The application PP made for a grant was very specific: the money granted would be spent on breast health screening services for women. Komen approved the grant for that purpose and the money went out to PP which spent it to pay for the services specific to the application.  So if a woman needed a mammogram, PP would pay the provider of that service for the patient from the Komen funds on hand for that purpose.

            This did not preclude anyone from giving funds directly to PP.  It was a funding mechanism for Komen to get funds into the hands of a grantee which would effectively utilize them for a specific women's breast health care purpose.

             The outrage reaction to Komen's decision to cut PP out of any future grant funding had nothing to do with anyone's direct contributions to PP.  It only had to do with cutting a funding stream for PP and no other grantee.  Komen donors got mad, not because they could not give to PP directly for that's always been the case.  They got mad because Komen's decision to defund PP in terms of the grant specifically earmarked for women's breast health was contrary to Komen's stated mission. 

             Komen donors decided to make sure that Komen's decision to defund PP -- and only PP as one of its grantees -- would not have an adverse impact on the women needing breast health services which they had found through PP.  So donations from former Komen supporters poured into PP to fill the gap in PP resources left by the Komen defunding decision. 

             As a related consequence, Komen's decision caused a lot of scrutiny of its overall budget.  And it does turn out that if one adds up the salary and benefits of the top executives, there are an awful lot of miles people are walking and running and collecting money from others (a lot of Komen fund raising isn't done by Komen employees; it's done by volunteers who are out raising money which they then turn over to Komen) which do not support breast cancer research or clinical needs at all but go entirely to support executive pay levels.  That does not sit well with some people who had raised money for Komen for years but never thought about exactly what their donations actually "bought" in Komen hands.

             Another biased source citing another biased source citing another biased source.

             The content of the piece has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the issue of Komen's operations, decision making mechanisms, internal policies and self-inflicted catastrophes played out in the public square.  A completely irrelevant, deliberate diversion.

             "LOOK!  Over there!  A squirrel is digging up an acorn!" is what's offered from one biased source to a second biased source to the thrid biased source.  

              I suggest that the phrase, "Consider the source(s)" applies perfectly in this instance.

It is a fact that Planned Parenthood provides well woman care to poor or uninsured women all around the world.  A small part of that care is the provision of access to contraception and where requested and needed, counselling and access to termination of pregnancy.  Komen provided a grant to help with the costs of breast screening, and where, required mammograms which is part of well woman care.  Their politically motivated decision to withdraw that funding to appeal to a narrow constituency penalized all poor or uninsured women and was repugnant to thinking humans.  That is why there was a public outcry.  Not because PP orchestrated a social media campaign.   

the post to the openly anti-choice site, also includes an interesting link to the INTERNAL memos Komen sent to all it's affiliates long before the public announcement  -obviously many Komen employees were distrubed enough to get the information to P so they could be prepared. Still cn't see how anyone could call it "dirty tricks" when a company defends itself....

Hard to read that biased an article - but VERY interesting link...

so glad this is all out in the OPEN now - maybe Komen will INCREASE Scientific Funding from $70,000,000. a year to at least $100,000,000. as we now know they have a total budget of more than $600,000,000.  And the "educaton" aspect has ceretainly been covered.  Tragic to find that Komen also withdrew all funding from stem cell research, so Yale, John's Hopkins, good institutions losing their grants...