Poor Planned Parenthood: Media and Politicians Run to the Rescue

Planned Parenthood has friends in high and useful places, and if you dare cross them, you will be destroyed

Is there any other organization in America that is more coddled, more sheltered, more pandered to than PP?  The Susan G. Komen Foundation attempted to discontinue some of their grant funding to Planned Parenthood this week, and boy, did they get smacked down for it.  That's the lesson of this Komen story:  Planned Parenthood has friends in high and useful places, and if you dare cross them, you will be destroyed.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Poor, poor Planned Parenthood.  Is there any other organization in America that is more coddled, more sheltered, more pandered to than PP?  They are a billion-dollar spoiled brat, but unfortunately, no one has the guts to put them in the corner and take away their toys.  (This spoiled brat, like a Transformer, morphs into a giant monster bully that will demolish anyone who gets in the way.)

The Susan G. Komen Foundation attempted to discontinue some of their grant funding to Planned Parenthood this week, and boy, did they get smacked down for it!  Liberal, pro-abortion politicians came to Planned Parenthood's rescue within seconds.  26 U.S. Senators sent a letter to Komen's founder, Nancy Brinker, pressuring Komen to restore the funding immediately.  NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined in the chastisement and promised to "offset" the "loss" to PP by giving them $250,000.  The Lance Armstrong Foundation then released a statement saying they would be giving Planned Parenthood $100,000.

The media pressure on Komen was furious and brutal.  Every major news network headlined the deprivation of Planned Parenthood of this precious funding as though women all over America had been sentenced to death by Komen.  Komen, who is supposed to champion breast health, they said, had all but guaranteed that women were going to be denied vital care that would cost them their lives.  Oh, the drama!  The travesty!

Of course, the message being drummed out by the media and the pro-abortion politicians was that Komen had succumbed to political pressure from those mean, woman-hating pro-lifers who just want women to get sick and die (preferably on the floor of the U.S. House).  Yes, this was surely Komen showing how cowardly they were, and how they didn't really care about women's health at all.  Anyone who would DARE deny money to the almighty Planned Parenthood is a pathetic excuse for a women's advocate.

How 'bout a reality check, hm? 

Fact #1:  Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation by Congress over their use of all those federal dollars we taxpayers are obligated to provide them.  And let's not be obtuse here, folks - funds are fungible.   Funds that pay the electric bill for the abortion mill are funding abortion.  Planned Parenthood EXISTS to do abortions.  Period.  If they had to cease killing babies tomorrow, they'd close up shop the day after that.  They are not a benevolent medical organization interested in women's health.  They are not philanthropists.  They are interested only in profits, and abortion means BIG profits.  Those "blobs of tissue" may be small, but getting rid of them is a multi-million dollar industry.  Breast cancer screenings?  Not a money-maker.  (Hence the cry for grants from generous folks like Komen.)

Fact #2:  Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms.  There is not a single PP clinic in the U.S. that can give a woman a mammogram.  Planned Parenthood does not offer any direct cancer treatment services.  PP does a physical breast exam, and then they are merely a referral center.  They send women to hospitals and health care facilities that do provide mammograms.  And for this, they demand the generous support of charitable contributions.

Fact #3:  Planned Parenthood performed less than 5% of the breast exams that Komen grants funded in 2011.  Clearly, Komen has not abandoned women to suffer without needed care.   Quite the contrary.  Brinker explained that Komen's goal is to direct their funding toward providers who - imagine this now - actually provide mammograms and cancer treatment!!

And last but certainly not least:  It was not the Komen Foundation that issued a statement about their decision to discontinue funding PP, but Planned Parenthood who leaked the news to the media first in order to stir up the necessary outrage toward Komen.  And the mainstream media was only too eager to oblige.  Poor, poor Planned Parenthood!  One ABC News story set it up this way:  "Witch Hunt or Policy Shift?"  With "reporting" like that, how can anyone question the allegiance of the media to PP?

So began the smear campaign against Komen, accusing them of politicizing women's health.  Have you noticed that a decision to not fund Planned Parenthood is always about politicizing women's health, but mandated funding of PP is never political, just noble and necessary?  In the world where Planned Parenthood is sainted and adored, any citizen who doesn't bow and pay homage (literally, pay) is punished and if necessary, crushed for their transgression.

That's the lesson of this Komen story:  Planned Parenthood has friends in high and useful places, and if you dare cross them, you.will.be.destroyed.

In the most ironic statement of the month, Cecile Richards griped that Komen's decision was the result of bullying by the pro-life community:

"It's hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women's lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying," Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told the Associated Press.

Then Planned Parenthood does what it does best: they charged their political allies and the mainstream media with the task of bullying Komen into submission once again.  Between Mayor Bloomberg's largesse and the LiveStrong donation, as well as other private donations, PP had more than made up for any loss of funding.  Yet that wasn't satisfactory.  Komen had to be humiliated and reprimanded.  It wasn't just about the money - it was about unquestioning loyalty and obedience to Planned Parenthood. 

And on Friday, Komen seemed to change their minds and reinstate the funding for PP.  The media and pro-abortion blogosphere labeled the move a mea culpa -  Komen's "apology" to Planned Parenthood.  Apology for what exactly?

Did Komen cave?  That depends on who you ask right now.  (Read Komen's statement here.)  They said that grants already awarded to PP will be honored and paid, and that PP may still be eligible for future grants, but they have not promised that PP will get anything in the future.  Are they trying to weather a nasty media storm for now, and refuse PP any grant money down the road?  It's anybody's guess.

The media has stubbornly ignored the countless women, like me, who have gone out of their way for years now NOT to buy products that support Komen precisely because they donate to Planned Parenthood.  Komen reported a huge surge in their donations this week, along with a flood of positive emails, all in response to their decision to stop funding PP.  Now, once again, Komen has put themselves back on the "do not donate" list for pro-lifers.  Many in the pro-life community feel that Komen has lost its last shred of credibility.

But that credibility was lacking all along, really.  Komen refuses to acknowledge the link between abortion and breast cancer.  The link between oral contraceptives and breast cancer is also a bugaboo that Komen has to overlook when it comes to Planned Parenthood.  In more ways than one, PP puts women at greater risk of breast cancer, and for years Komen has played the blind, deaf fool just handing over the cash.

I was happy to write a letter to the Komen Foundation this week to thank them for their decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood.  It was a step in the right direction, and I wanted them to know the move was appreciated.  It's disappointing, but not very surprising, that they may have changed their minds, thanks to the slanderous pounding they got from Planned Parenthood's bully machine.

Bottom line:  Planned Parenthood kills over 300,000 babies in America every year.  They receive over $350 million taxpayer dollars every year.  In 2011, PP ordered every one of their 99 affiliates around the country to have at least one clinic performing abortions, because abortion is where the profit is.  PP is a billion-dollar industry because of abortion.  They have shown themselves time and time again to be more than willing to cover up child rape and sexual abuse, and to thwart and outright defy the law when it suits their purposes.  They are invested in promoting promiscuous and dangerous sexual behavior among teenagers because they need a steady stream of new clients. 

And they have President Obama, at least half of Congress, and the mainstream media under their bloody thumb.  The beast bared its teeth this week, and everyone scrambled to make sure the thing got fed.

(Jill Stanek does a great job of analyzing this mess and what happens now.)
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Jennifer Hartline is a grateful Catholic, a proud Army wife and homeschooling mother of three children.  She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.  Visit her online at Wake Up, Deborah! and MCH.

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