As A Woman, I Am Outraged...And You Should Be Too.

Like many people, I was outraged last week to hear that the Susan G. Komen Foundation, sponsors and benefactors of the Susan G. Komen Foundation Race For The Cure, had chosen to stop funding Planned Parenthood and allowing them to provide free breast cancer screenings and mammograms to poor women.  As the story unfolded, I learned more and more about what goes on behind the pink doors of the SGKF, and I came to the realization that SGKF is not working for "the cure", they are working in their own self interests.


SGKF was started by Nancy Brinker, who's family also owns Cancer Treatment Centers of America.  Nancy's sister was Susan G. Komen, and she died of breast cancer.  According to PR blather, Nancy supposedly promised Susan on her deathbed that she would work diligently to find a cure for breast cancer so that women would stop dying of this disease.  Unless there's a witness that I haven't heard about, no one knows if this is the truth or some beautiful spin thought up by advertising mavens.  Until recently, I would have believed the former.  Now, I'm not so sure.


A year or so ago SGKF hired Karen Handel, a former Secretary of State from Georgia and avowed anti-abortion advocate, as senior vice-president of public policy.  Anyone who cared to do a Wikipedia search would know that during her tenure as GA SOS she attempted to chase Planned Parenthood out of Georgia, and lobbied members of the state congress to enact laws that would make it difficult, if not impossible for a woman to obtain an abortion, no matter the reason, within Georgia.  Luckily, she was not successful and Georgia women still have the right to make decisions with regards to their own bodies.


After her failed run at Governor, apparently she decided that if she couldn't legislate them out, she'd starve them out, hence her decision to go to work for SGKF.  Insiders within the organization state that as soon as she hit the ground she started demanding that funding to Planned Parenthood cease immediately.  And last December, she was finally successful, causing a long-term SGKF foundation member to resign on the spot, and several others to quietly resign over the next month.


When Planned Parenthood released a press statement in late January informing the public that SGKF had cut their funding for screenings and mammograms, I don't think anyone had any idea that the poop was going to hit the fan the way it did, and the resulting splash would color the pink ribbon a dirty brown.  Closets have been opened, skeletons have been dragged out and made to dance, Handel has resigned in disgrace, and Nancy Brinker has been proven in public a liar, and possibly a thief.


I think we all owe Karen Handel a resounding "thank you" and a round of applause?  Why?  Because without her, millions of Americans would be lacing on shoes, hitting up their co-workers, and writing checks for an organization, believing their dollars were going to find a cure for this horrible, horrible disease.  Now, we all know that SGKF is nothing more than a front for denying women the right to make choices regarding their own health issues, and a way for a rich family to get even richer.  Without Karen Handel, many of us, if not all, would not know that SGKF vigorously (to the tune of app one million dollars in 2010) goes after any organization that DARES to use the pink ribbon or the words "the cure".  Without Karen Handel, no one would know that SGKF brought in over $420 million dollars in 2010, but that only $270 million was actually awarded in grants, including a PALTRY $600 thousand dollars to Planned Parenthood for breast screenings and mammograms for poor women. Without Karen Handel, no one would know about the extravegant salaries, travel, and political donations paid for out of the kindness of those who have no idea how their money is being spent.  Without Karen Handel, none of us would know that SGKF has a political agenda - a very CHILLING political agenda, especially if you are poor.  And without Karen Handel, hardly anyone would know that Nancy Brinker dances on her poor dead sister's grave every day as she puts money in her pocket that could save the life of another sister, another mother, another daughter.  As someone who has lost a sister to cancer, this one fact makes me so angry.  I could never, in a thousand years, imagine using my sister's death for profit.  And I can't imagine anyone who could being a decent human being.

I will not celebrate the day SGKF closes its doors - and I'm pretty sure they're toast.  I will not celebrate because I wonder if we possibly might actually have a cure by now if a REAL organization, one that was REALLY focused on a cure, had sprung up in the place of SGKF.  Maybe there was someone out there that was actually working on such an organization, but didn't have the money or the prestige of the Brinker family, and found themselves overshadowed, or harried out of existence by their insistence on using the words "the cure". But, thanks to Nancy Brinker and her cronies - or crones - and their selfishness, their arrogance, their avarice, and their ambitions, we will never know.  The loss here goes far beyond money. It goes right to our very humanity, and will hurt other organizations in the future, as many will become skeptical of all charitable foundations.