Breaking: Komen Foundation pulls breast cancer screening funds from Planned Parenthood

What sad and disturbing news. From the Washington Post comes breaking news that will affect hundreds of thousands of dollars in women’s health funding:

“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.” [Emphasis mine.]

The infamous pink Bible “controversy” (in which pink bibles that were being sold to benefit Susan B. Komen for Breast Cancer Awareness were pulled from the shelves because of ties to Planned Parenthood) most likely had a hand in this. Another likely factor? Karen Handel, the new Senior VP of Public Policy at Susan G. Komen, is a staunch anti-choicer, who went so far as to pledge to defund PP’s services when she was running for Governor.

Ugh. What bleak news. It seems the right-wing anti-woman agenda is continuing to creep up on us in new and damaging ways. I hope there will be considerable fallout and will post more updates as they come in.

Brooklyn, NY

Lori Adelman started blogging with Feministing in 2008, and now runs partnerships and strategy as a co-Executive Director. She is also the Director of Youth Engagement at Women Deliver, where she promotes meaningful youth engagement in international development efforts, including through running the award-winning Women Deliver Young Leaders Program. Lori was formerly the Director of Global Communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and has also worked at the United Nations Foundation on the Secretary-General's flagship Every Woman Every Child initiative, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch. As a leading voice on women’s rights issues, Lori frequently consults, speaks and publishes on feminism, activism and movement-building. A graduate of Harvard University, Lori has been named to The Root 100 list of the most influential African Americans in the United States, and to Forbes Magazine‘s list of the “30 Under 30” successful mediamakers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Lori Adelman is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Partnerships.

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