About 24 hours after the group announced it would lose grants for breast cancer screenings from the Susan G. Komen Foundation, donations to Planned Parenthood have eclipsed funds from its largest benefactor, according to news reports.
The Komen decision to end most of its grants to the controversial provider of women’s health services has been loudly denounced by prominent women’s groups and public health advocates, but also caused a donation spike, the organization said, according to the Washington Post.
On Thursday, New York Mayor Bloomberg announced he would give a $250,000 matching gift -- dollar for dollar -- up to that amount in new funds donated to Planned Parenthood. "Politics have no place in health care," Bloomberg said.
Komen reportedly provided Planned Parenthood with about $700,000 last year for breast screenings.
More than 6,000 online donors had pitched in about $400,000 as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Post. The windfall followed a $250,000 donation from Texas oil baron Lee Fikes and wife Amy, Planned Parenthood said in a statement Tuesday.
But in the eyes of many, Komen’s decision to cut off money to nearly 20 Planned Parenthood affiliates was as much about politics as principle (in the video above, Planned Parenthood Federation President Cecile Richards calls it an “ugly and aggressive campaign by right-wing organizations”).
Publicly, the demise of Komen's support for Planned Parenthood was due to a new policy instituted by the cancer awareness organization's board that says grantees must be free of formal investigation. Last fall, Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns began just such a probe into Planned Parenthood's funding.
“People don’t understand that a Congressional investigation doesn’t necessarily mean a problem of substance,” John D. Raffaelli, a Komen board member and Washington lobbyist, told the New York Times on Wednesday. “When people read about it in places like Texarkana, Tex., where I’m from, it sounds really bad.”
What also sounds really bad to some people is that the decision may have been engineered by Komen Vice President and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel, a staunch foe of abortion, according to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who reports the organization's top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately after the decision.
In a video statement released Wednesday on Youtube, Komen founder Nancy G. Brinker countered that claim that the group caved to political pressure, saying, “Some might argue that our standards are too exacting, but over the past three decades people have given us more than just their money. They have given us their trust.”
On the social networking site Twitter, advocates of women’s health vowed to flood Planned Parenthood with cash.
Los Angeles Times contributor and author Claire Zulkey tweeted: “I plan on donating to Planned Parenthood first thing I get into the office today. Funny how politics and men's health never intermix.”
Jillian York, director of the International Freedom of Expression, tweeted: "Just heard about the Komen foundation cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood. Donating to PP RIGHT NOW."
On social networking sites, a petition circulated voicing support for Planned Parenthood. A Facebook Page has sprung up to mount a campaign to defund the Komen Foundation.
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