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Planned Parenthood supporters fill funding gap

Posted at 10:51 AM on February 2, 2012 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Politics

The more we hear about The Susan G. Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood, the more we wonder how they ever got together in the first place.

On MPR's Midmorning, this morning, Melinda Henneberger of the Washington Post, who writes on the She the People blog, considered the deep political ties of each side involved in Komen's decision to pull a grant from Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening.

Nancy Brinker, the CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the sister of Susan G. Komen, is a well-connected Republican.

Brinker and her husband donated $125,000 to Republicans in the 2001-2003 election cycle, shortly before President Bush appointed her ambassador to Hungary.

"Komen, maybe not so incidentally, has a new relationship with the George W. Bush Institute, which is the policy arm of the presidential library which will open next year," she said. "And Planned Parenthood has strong Democratic ties. Its president, Cecile Richards, (is) the daughter of former late Texas Gov. Ann Richards, who was defeated by George W. Bush."

How badly will Komen's decision hurt Planned Parenthood? Not much, apparently. In the 24 hours since the decision was announced, small donors contributed more than $650,000 to Planned Parenthood, nearly matching the $680,000 grant Komen pulled, according to Henneberger.

Comments (11)

Bear in mind, though, that the Komen funding was an annual grant. Replacing a year of funding is one thing, but replacing a yearly source of funds is another.

Posted by Tim | February 2, 2012 11:40 AM

True, but it gives the organization a year to find a replacement grant. They likely won't have much trouble doing so.

Posted by Bob Collins | February 2, 2012 11:55 AM

Perhaps this will be logged as another event that makes us look at our charitable giving and do some more research before committing funds to a group.

My tip, look up what the CEO of the organization makes, and then decide if you think they are paid enough, or to much, and give accordingly.

Posted by Jon | February 2, 2012 12:10 PM

"True, but it gives the organization a year to find a replacement grant. They likely won't have much trouble doing so."

Write many grants, Bob?

Minnesota foundations are overwhelmed with the amount of requests they are receiving. Its not as easy as it looks.

Posted by Loretta | February 2, 2012 12:11 PM

I'm sure they are. That doesn't really have anything to do with the particulars of this situation. But we'll know a year from now.

Posted by Bob Collins | February 2, 2012 12:27 PM

Also some of those small donors might have contributed to Koman in the past on an annual basis and will be switching those annual contributions to PP.

Posted by JackU | February 2, 2012 12:37 PM

Regarding the statement that Susan G Komen does not contribute to organizations under investigation.

According to 2010 tax records (p 39), the foundation contributed $261k to the American Jewish Joint (Distribution Committee) or JDC. Also during that financial year, the JDC was under a continuing investigation by the Justice Department for "inappropriate financial transactions" in eastern europe.

Posted by kennedy | February 2, 2012 12:53 PM

The woman on Midmorning seemed to suggest this morning that the rule, voted in by Komen's board, was fairly recent.

Posted by Bob Collins | February 2, 2012 12:59 PM

Komen took a backward step in
breast cancer health care when
they decided to stop
cooperating with Planned
Parenthood. We will
consequently stop contributing
to Komen and give those funds
to PP instead, an organization
that is clearly more concerned
about women's health than
Komen. Komen has just
demonstrated that it is not
willing to put women's health
care before politics. PP has
led the fight for women's
health care and never backed
down. That's where we will
put our trust and dollars.

Posted by Elaine & Robert Phelps | February 2, 2012 2:20 PM

Never gave Komen a penny and never will. Twas obvious from the start that Komen was a business enterprise. Sorry about the woman's sister, however, this is now an unsavory outfit. Way to go, again, rethuglicons.........that Handal woman is only there because she was jobless, after losing in the recon gov primary in Ga........how MUCH DOES HANDAL MAKE, I wonder? I know only 24% of the millions they haul in a year goes to actual research, and the perfume they were pushing contained carcinogens..........they are not very aware, or they just wanted to make more $$$$$$$$$$$ for the fat cats at the top. Really quite unsavory. SHAME ON this NPO......take away their tax exempt, too.

Posted by Mermaiden | February 2, 2012 2:35 PM

I have repeatedly donated to Susan G. Komen to support friends, celebrate birthdays, etc. As of today I will be making my donations to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is devoted to womens health and I will earmark my donations to breast health. Shame on a womens health organization taking this action against another womens health organization. I will also contact my legislators and everyone I know to do same.

Posted by Shirley | February 2, 2012 5:01 PM