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Komen Reverse

February 4, 2012 by · Comments Off on Komen Reverse 

Komen Reverse, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, after three days of criticism from politicians, other non-profits and even supporters, announced it reversed its decision to cut future grants to Planned Parenthood for breast-health services. The change of heart follows a firestorm of criticism from across the country, as well as strong public reaction via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

“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,” Friday’s statement from Komen said.

“The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

“Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.”

North Texas Planned Parenthood spokesperson Kelly Hart said the organization announced the decision to continue funding Friday afternoon at the Planned Parenthood national annual meeting in Fort Worth. Hart said, “We are so pleased that they want to continue the partnership. And when we announced at our annual luncheon here in Fort Worth that Komen had decided that they were gonna renew the partnership with us everybody cheered and there was just a standing ovation.”

While anti-abortion forces supported Komen’s decision, many Komen and Planned Parenthood supporters say reversing the decision after such a strong backlash was the right thing for Komen to do. Samantha Herek is a 23 year-old Planned Parenthood patient who agrees. She said, “I was pretty shocked. I got an email about it a couple days ago and honestly i just was in disbelief basically it didn’t make any sense why they would do that. I was really glad that they decided to reverse their decision. Definitely it will help alot of women, cause this is the only place alot of people can go. I’ve been a patient of them for a really long time. I’m a student. So i’m on very tight fund. This is like one of the only place I can go to get any of the medical care i need and pills and all of that type stuff, preventivie care. And I’m really grateful that they exist for that reason.”

Planned Parenthood and Komen say they will continue to offer free breast exams and screenings to low-income women and continue their longstanding relationship to promotewomen’s health. Hart reconfirms, “We are so please that we can continue to work together to work together to provide breast health care for the women who need it in North Texas.”

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