In the past 72 hours, the “absolutely not politically motivated” decision by the Susan G. Komen foundation to withdraw $680,000 in “future” grant money from Planned Parenthood has become a firestorm that literally threatens to eviscerate all the good work of over two decades of fundraising by the Komen Foundation to find a cure for breast cancer.
Now the group needs to find a cure for the incompetence of its leadership. And it needs to do so quickly, before most people only see red when they see the Komen Foundation’s pink ribbons.
Today’s defense of the foundation’s decision by Komen’s founder Ambassador Nancy Brinker was a textbook study of how not to handle a crisis. Blame your critics that their outrage and criticisms are, as she put it, “…a dangerous distraction from the work that still remains to be done in ridding the world of breast cancer”.
Seriously, that’s your answer?
Because going on national television and simply saying something like: “We made a mistake, and we’re absolutely going to continue giving money to Planned Parenthood to make sure as many women have access to cancer screenings and mammograms as possible” would have have been so much harder to do.
Ms. Brinker you can throw out all the assurances you want that this was not “a bow to political pressure” but that doesn’t pass the smell test for too many of us who have supported your organization. Including a guy who knows something about politics.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg understood what was happening enough to write his own check for $250,000 to Planned Parenthood and he had a great piece of wisdom for the leadership of the Komen foundation:
Politics have no place in health care. Breast cancer screening saves lives and hundreds of thousands of women rely on Planned Parenthood for access to care.”
What’s almost funny now is that the Komen foundation asks for the same kind of support that Planned Parenthood might have asked for. While Ambassador Brinker said “The scurrilous accusations being hurled at this organization are profoundly hurtful to so many of us”, one could only wonder if those exact same words could be used by the head of Planned Parenthood–which is being openly persecuted by a number of state government and a Florida Congressman who unsuccessfully tried in 2011 to cut all federal funding to the organization.
When the stated goal of Congressman Cliff Stearns was– as he put it at the time–“This is when we are going to defund Planned Parenthood” didn’t quite work out, he began a congressional investigation into the organization that can trace its roots back to 1916. When contraception was as controversial and emotional as abortion is today.
But in that era, Margaret Sanger didn’t sniff about “scurrilous accusations” back in the day. Not about the problems she faced is trying to educate women about the issues of unwanted pregnancy and illegal abortions and not for the fact that contraception itself was illegal. Not even for the fact that she and every other American woman didn’t even have the right to vote.
Speaking of grants, did you know that it was a Planned Parenthood grant in 1948 that led to the development of the birth control pill. Ironic, huh? Funny how that grant money wasn’t tied up by any new policy decision about “not giving grants to any organization under investigation.”
For its’ part, the Komen Foundation and its founder are now stating that the change in giving grants to Planned Parenthood wasn’t even going into effect for some time. Apparently the problem, according to Brinker, is really the “gross mischaracterization” about the Foundation’s decision to change its position on giving grants to Planned Parenthood, but that wasn’t to take place for “at least for another year.”
I have a boss who has a simple instruction that he offers up in the midst of a problem like this: “Fix it.”
I’ll add to that one word… “Fix it now.”