The clean sweep at the Komen Foundation is finally complete. A few days ago Komen founder Nancy Brinker finally lost her job as CEO.
It took a while but they finally got rid of her, the woman who watched
her sister suffer and die from breast cancer, who dedicated her life to
eradicating the disease, who created one of the most successful global
health charities in the world. They removed her for the crime of trying
to defund Planned Parenthood. She’s being replaced by a woman some say
had a hand in developing Obamacare and who has never run a non-profit.
She was the last of the triumvirate who had the audacity to try and
get Susan G. Komen for the Cure out of the culture wars around abortion.
The first to go was Karen Handel who was head of global marketing for
Komen. She received the initial blame from the left. Though she
voluntarily resigned, she was the fall guy. Handel subsequently wrote a
very readable book about it and is now running for the U.S. Senate from Georgia. Second to go was Liz Thompson, who at the time two years ago was President of Komen.
Since they are all gone completely or from day-to-day operations, it
is time to tell some tales from the inside of that failed effort. I know
quite a bit that has never been revealed until now. Top Komen people
came to me in the summer of 2011 to ask my advice on how to step away
from Planned Parenthood funding and how to communicate this, in fact how
to orchestrate such a move with the pro-life movement.
They came to me because I know pretty much everyone in the pro-life
movement, how many of them think, and how many would react to such a
reality, that Komen would withdraw funding from the pro-life bête noir,
Planned Parenthood.
Pro-Life Wisconsin:Innnnnnnnnnnteresting. But, nope, clearly not related to Komen's decision earlier this year to stand with Planned Parenthood.
Michelle Heitzinger, executive director of the South Central Wisconsin Komen affiliate (ie, Madison), recently gave a talk about the Komen-Planned Parenthood flap. Listen to Heitzinger describe herself as a recovering Catholic who "loves" Planned Parenthood here.
Registrations for Saturday’s Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Madison are down 25 percent from last year, raising concerns that fundraising figures will drop, too.
Race officials say they don’t know how much blame to place on a controversy involving Planned Parenthood, noting that a difficult economy has hurt many fundraising efforts.
The national Komen organization announced in January it would no longer fund breast cancer-related services provided by Planned Parenthood. It quickly reversed itself after a national outcry.
“It’s really hard to say what the impact has been in our community because we don’t have any money funding Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin,” said Michelle Heitzinger, executive director of the South Central Wisconsin Komen affiliate.
Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin did not apply for Komen grants, so none of the three Komen Wisconsin affiliates is currently funding the organization, Heitzinger said. She was among affiliate officials who opposed the national Komen organization’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood.
A quick Google search turned up a similar situation across the country — Seattle; Washington, DC; Minnesota; Salt Lake City, Utah; Tuscon; and others. Some of these cities — Madison and Seattle, for example — are notably more liberal (and more apt to support Komen in wake of the Planned Parenthood funding fiasco) than others, such as Tuscon, AZ.
On Tuesday, March 6, Michelle Heitzinger, Executive Director of the South Central Wisconsin Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, spoke at a public event in Madison. The topic of the talk was Komen’s work and the recent debacle surrounding the organization’s effort to defund Planned Parenthood.
Below is a YouTube with partial audio of her talk, provided to the BC by an anonymous attendee.
Heitzinger can be heard expressing her support, and that of Komen’s, for Planned Parenthood. Heitzinger also refers to herself as a “recovering Catholic” and reveals how Komen is responding to Catholics regarding the morality of funding Planned Parenthood.
I couldn’t find the pro-Komen statement from SSM Healthcare that Heitzinger refers to, but I would assume it’s similar to this. Heitzinger also refers to a grant that the Catholic Multicultural Center in Madison received from Komen. Info here.
Or you can read the audio:
01:18 We’re not defunding Planned Parenthood, I love my Planned Parenthood sisters, but our Komen money was not keeping the lights on or keeping the doors open. Their mission is family planning, our mission is breast cancer. There’s a really small space we intersect, and that small space is important to the women who use those services…
01:45 Question from the audience: This is a hypothetical, just something for you to think about… If you’re giving money to the Catholic Multicultural Center and a priest is charged, a criminal charge, does that trigger an investigation? The priest is charged with, you know, like, child abuse or whatever. Is that gonna trigger your backing off on that grant?
Answer: Well it has to be conclusive and criminal in charge… I… that’s a good question. I would imagine that would be a determining factor for a lot of Catholic-based grants.We also have the statement from St. Mary’s saying that they continue to support Komen and the work that Komen does because it is in accordance with their mission and, um, they do a question and answer dialogue for Catholics as to why it is still, um, OK to be involved with Komen. And, I, they, it’s pretty interesting, I went to 12 years of Catholic school and I’m a recovering Catholic now, but um, they do explain to Catholics why you can still be a part of Susan G. Komen. Um, the statement is:
“Given our long history of serving poor and vulnerable women, SSM Healthcare supports Susan G. Komen and its local affiliates and their mission to end breast cancer forever by empowering people and ensuring quality healthcare for all and energizing science to find cures. Local grant programs funded by Komen affiliates support non-profit organizations that provide innovative breast health, breast cancer education and direct service programs to women in need. The grants are made possible through events such as the Race for the Cure, the three-day, as well as generous contributions from individuals and corporate sponsors. We are aware of the recent events surrounding Susan G. Komen for the Cure and have once again examined SSM Healthcare’s relationship with the organization and as in the past, we have discovered that nothing would compel us to limit our support or our involvement with the organization at this time. As with all other relationships with outside organizations, we will continually evaluate SSM Healthcare’s ties to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and its local affiliates in light of our mission and the values of the Catholic Church teaching. “
Whisper: And then they have a little Question & Answer… I also have this in email form if anyone… if you would like to look at it or read through it. And again, it came from Stephanie Johnson over at St. Mary’s.
So, given that, that’s a really good question. The program that we fund at the Catholic Multicultural Center is for English-speaking women, for women whose English is a second language, and, uh, it’s all administered in Spanish and it is for the low-income population.
Again, how that fits a priest being found guilty, I don’t know. We fund the program, so we fund what goes on in that building. And so again I don’t know how that falls, when looking at a priest being, um…
Madison's Catholic Multicultural Center has been awarded a grant from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Madison affiliate [watch the news coverage here]. The purpose of the grant is to run workshops on breast cancer awareness for Latina women. The Catholic Multicultural Center is run byOur Lady Queen of Peace Catholic parish in Madison, where former Gov. Jim Doyle, a pro-abortion Catholic, was known to receive Communion.
We are all praying for a cure for breast cancer, hoping for an end to the disease that has taken loved ones from us and made us all realize our own mortality. Catholics who choose to support breast cancer awareness organizations need to be attentive to the policies of those organizations.
Susan G. Komen has accomplished a great deal of good by taking the breast cancer issue to a national level. Unfortunately, Susan G. Komen also supports the work of Planned Parenthood, both on a national level and a state level.
Here's how Komen and PPWI are linked, courtesy of Pro-Life Wisconsin:
• The Madison affiliate of Susan G. Komen refers women to Planned Parenthood.
• Susan G. Komen of Milwaukee is listed as a major sponsor of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Click here to view on PPWI’s website.
• In 2005-06, Planned Parenthood of Madison received $30,000 from the Madison Komen Affiliate; Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin received $42,077 from the Milwaukee Komen Affiliate; and Planned Parenthood of Milwaukee received $13,143 from the Milwaukee Komen Affiliate.
• In 2009, Komen awarded the exact same grant to Planned Parenthood.
The money Susan G. Komen gives to Planned Parenthood isn’t small change, either: “For our fiscal year ’09, Komen Affiliates contributed $731,000 to Planned Parenthood programs… For the past five years, $3 million went to Planned Parenthood programs from Komen Affiliates.”
Yesterday, Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, directed that all breast cancer fundraising in his diocese be directed away from Susan Komen.
