On Thursday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to Planned Parenthood’s massive funding cut by announcing his $250,000 matching donation. In his statement, Bloomberg wrote, “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. We should be helping women access that care, not placing barriers in their way.”
This action by Bloomberg was brought on due to the United States’ largest breast cancer charity, Komen, and its refusal to renew the $680,000 grant given to Planned Parenthood in 2011. The money from this donation was used to provide breast exams and health education to uninsured or low-income women in need. Komen founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker stated that, “This has been a contentious issue and one where the (public’s) sense of our organization has been lost. We are the leader in the breast cancer space, and our only mission is to find treatments and cures for this disease … When you grant $93 million, you have to be sure that you are granting it to the right people.”
The “wrong people” meaning organizations such as Planned Parenthood that provide abortion services on top of health education and breast exams. The PPFA is currently under investigation due to suspicions of taxpayer money being used for abortion services, and Komen had chosen to not renew the grants due to its recently initiated policy in which they will not donate money to organizations that are being investigated. Brinker denied that this new policy against groups under scrutiny is directed alone towards Planned Parenthood.
However, Planned Parenthood is no longer at a loss. Twenty-four hours after the announcement, over $400,000 from 6,000 online donors was raised to replace the lost funds, on top of the $250,000 gifted by Bloomberg. Bloomberg also expressed his contribution to the PPFA several times on Twitter, posting tweets asking his followers to also donate to the organization. Soon after, Cecile Richards (president of the PPFA), issued a statement of gratitude to Bloomberg saying, “On behalf of hundreds of thousands of women nationwide who rely on Planned Parenthood for breast cancer education and screening, we are enormously grateful to Mayor Bloomberg. This contribution will help ensure that politics don’t interfere with women having access to health care. People all across the country have stepped forward in the last 48 hours to offer help and support, and the mayor’s donation will help ensure that no woman is denied breast cancer services because of right-wing political pressure campaigns.”
Due to the enormous amount of nationwide criticism and anger caused by Komen’s decision, the organization chose to change their policy against scrutinized groups such as Planned Parenthood, and to continue funding them. Komen stated Friday that, “We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants.”
Komen’s policy against organizations under investigation has been changed, “to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”
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Crary, David. “Komen Drops Plans to Cut Planned Parenthood Grants.” Abcnews.go.com. Associated Press, 3 Feb 2012. Web. 3 Feb 2012.