Planned Parenthood Will Get Komen Funding Afterall – Right or Wrong Decision?

The Susan G. Komen foundation recently made a decision not to renew funding to Planned Parenthood projects for breast cancer screenings due to Planned Parenthood being under federal investigation and that investigation conflicting with the Komen’s criteria for funding. The decision to cease funding spurred a whirlwind of controversy, protests, and anger; over two dozen Senate Democrats to publicly ask the Komen foundation to reconsider the decision; and several large donations to Planned Parenthood in protest of the Komen decision.

The Komen foundation reversed it’s decision just three days after the de-funding announcement was made.  

The group made the following statement to CNN today, “We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.” The group pledged to continue funding existing grants, including the Planned Parenthood grants. Komen reps also say that the foundation will be amending its criteria to clarify that investigations that would disqualify an entity from receiving Komen funding must be conclusive and criminal in nature, not political. The idea is that this would leave politics, such as the politics surrounding abortion laws, out of the grant process.

To be clear, Planned Parenthood has been under investigation by Congress since September, 2010 for allegedly illegally using federal funds to provide abortions. Some of the Planned Parenthood supporters have A) alleged that this federal investigation is political maneuvering by Republicans to put an end to the organization simply because they don’t morally agree with the premise and doings of the organization, not because of any actual wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood -and- B) the Komen decision to withhold funding was about abortion, not the actual investigation. They also accuse the Komen foundation of being in cahoots with Congress Republicans looking to end Planned Parenthood through de-funding tactics.

Indeed, anti-abortion advocates have long questioned the Komen foundation on its decision to fund groups like Planned Parenthood. This is what supposedly prompted the foundation to release a 2009 statement that all Komen funding is only used for breast cancer programs.

So I have no doubt that anti-abortion groups and pro-life elected officials adamantly oppose Planned Parenthood and would like nothing better than to completely rid the group of its funding. On the other hand, I don’t doubt the statistics that say Planned Parenthood, via the Komen foundation’s funding, completed 170,000 breast cancer screenings. With both of that said, two wrongs still don’t make a right.

If Komen’s criteria means that no entity can receive funding if under federal investigation, then that’s the rules that should apply. Maybe abortion politics were at play in the original de-funding decision, but abortion politics were undoubtedly at play in the decision to reverse that decision. Now that’s the very definition of hypocrisy. And, who’s to say which investigations are political in nature and which are purely legal in nature? If politics are excluded from being a disqualifier in federal investigations, then Komen might as well do away with the rule that an organization can’t be under federal investigation! 

There is a reason we have an investigatory process for entities receiving federal funding, and Planned Parenthood is accused of misusing those funds and is in the middle of that federal investigatory process. Maybe they’re guilty and have misused funds, or maybe they’re innocent and the victim of abortion-related political warfare, but, in either case, Komen was right to not fund the group until the investigation is over. Teachers aren’t allowed to continue working once accused of a crime against a student. Sad for the falsely accused teachers, but what would even be sadder is to continue to allow a teacher to work and victimize other students during an investigatory process that turns out to be true. The same can be said of this funding debacle… sad if Planned Parenthood is innocent, but what if they’re guilty of misusing federal funds? If misusing federal funds, than they’re most likely misusing all their funds – including that of Komen.