Better Days

[ladysprite]

Behold the power of the internet, and righteous ire - Susan G. Komen has reversed their decision to withhold funding from Planned Parenthood, and apologized for their decision.

I am still saddened that the decision was made in the first place, and hope that the person responsible will be removed, but I am so, so very glad to hear that they changed their policy, and did so this quickly. Thank you to everyone who spread the word, signed petitions, donated, and wrote letters; and I hope that word of the reversal spreads as quickly.

More details here....

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I agree with every word, brighteyes!

[curmudgn]

I am now waiting to hear Komen proceed to place blame on some mid-level fonctionnaire scapegoat, at which point I will call bullshit. That kind of decision must have been taken at the highest levels of the organization.

[citabria]

I was relieved to hear this, too!

Komen's been criticized for a lot over the past couple of years (most notably the same things a lot of very large humanitarian organizations are criticized for -- putting too small a percentage of money raised towards research and/or things like PP's grants) and I've nodded and gone on. I know that the larger an organization is, the more money has to go towards keeping it afloat; that sucks but it's not uncommon. It hadn't kept me away from Komen-related things, though (including the myriad pink items) because 1) I like pink in general and 2) adding to awareness is always a good thing.

The idea of intentionally boycotting Komen felt rather daunting -- and frustrating, given the awareness angle -- but their decisions (both the new PP and research-related policies) irked me that much. (It rather reminds me of when I discovered that Snapple was a Coors company, back in law school. Man that boycott was challenging!) I think it's still going to be an interesting few months for them, but I'm relieved.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I'm less sanguine about this. I can't help but note that the apology was carefully worded in such a way that it doesn't rule out them finding a different way to do the same thing next year, when the furor has died down. Particularly worrisome are the comments made in this article about Planned Parenthood providing only "pass-through" treatment because they refer patients for screening... just as every other doctor does.

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I seriously expect them to pull the exact same stunt again as soon as they find something "less controversial" to hang it on. They have board members from the crowd that wants to shut down Planned Parenthood permanently.