Komen Clash With Planned Parenthood Continues

The fallout from the decision by the Susan G. Komen Foundation to severe ties with Planned Parenthood continues. While groups are pushing back against the decision, others are supporting it, The Washington Post reported.

The controversy continued as Komen changed its story on why they cut off funding. Initially they said it was because Congress was looking into whether Planned Parenthood had used federal funds to pay for abortions.

Now Komen founder Nancy Brinker said the organization wanted to focus on groups that directly provide health services such as mammograms to women instead of the referrals that Planned Parenthood does, the Post reported.

Regardless, 26 senators urged Komen to reconsider its decision and seven Komen groups in California said they opposed the decision. Yale University’s School of Public Health is reviewing its decision to have Brinker speak at this year’s commencement and the American Association of University Women cut its ties to Komen, the Post reported.

However, the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life praised Komen’s decision. “As a breast cancer survivor, I was always troubled with this whole idea that the nation’s largest abortion provider was enmeshed in the breast cancer fight when they weren’t actually doing mammograms,” President Charmaine Yoest told the Post. “I look at this as smart stewardship.”