May 31, 2010 7:40 PM
Susan G. Komen Planned Parenthood Link
This is why I don't support Susan G. Komen. They deny the abortion-breast cancer link and they support Planned Parenthood - generously. I can't support an organization that would take my contributions and turn them over to another organization engaged in massacring the next generation. Nor can I support one that is keeping women in the dark about the increased risk of breast cancer for women who've had abortions. If you agree, please read the entire article, spread the word via Facebook and your email lists, and be prepared to educate anytime, any place:Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood: Pro-Life People Should be Warned
by Hannah Carter
May 24, 2010LifeNews.com Note: Hannah Carter is the director of education for Georgia Right to Life, a statewide pro-life group. This opinion column originally appeared on the GRTL blog web site.
Like many families, my grandmother and great-grandmother both had breast cancer. The issue of wanting to fight what harms your family or friends is noble. So when I tell people that I do not support Susan G. Komen an organization that exists to "fight breast cancer", I normally get the look of one: why would you abandon your family or two: oh there goes one of those extremist.
However, my reasons are not that extreme, but rather principled.
I'm sure many of you reading this article have also been confronted with the issue of if I 'm pro-life then how can I support an organization that supports the nation's leading abortion provider. Hopefully, the following principles can shed some light on how to respond sympathetically, yet firm with why you cannot wear pink, or join the race, or all the various ways that Susan G. Komen is supported.
Principle # 1 Don't give to organizations that promote the shedding of innocent blood.
If this were a list of commandments, we could start with Thou Shall Not Kill. However, Proverbs 6:17 states that one of the seven things God hates are hands that shed innocent blood.
Unfortunately, Susan G. Komen has given over $3 million dollars between 2003 and 2008 to Planned Parenthood which is the nation's leading abortion provider.
While Susan G. Komen makes claims that these grants go for breast exams, once the funds go to Planned Parenthood they are fungible. For example, you can throw two twenty dollar bills into a purse one from a friend and one from your own account, but when you go to pay the light bill you use both.
The same is true with Planned Parenthood's money it receives from Komen. Whenever someone applies for a grant they can say that while this $5,000 is going to breast cancer research, 20 percent of that money is going to pay for administrative costs like keeping the lights on and paying rent. So in essence, the money that people are raising to fight breast cancer is also going to keep the lights on at Planned Parenthood.
According to the 2008 Annual Report from Planned Parenthood, breast cancer services decreased by 4% and abortion procedures increased by 6%. In 2008, Susan G. Komen gave $731,000 to Planned Parenthood.
Principle # 2 Know and Recognize the Risk Factors for the Disease You are Trying to Prevent.
There are certain risks that can increase an individual's chance of getting breast cancer. While Susan G. Komen says that they believe in knowing your risk factors, they have repeatedly denied the link between breast cancer and one of the greatest avoidable risk factors, abortion.
According to Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, "29 out of 38 worldwide epidemiological studies show an increased risk of breast cancer of approximately 30% among women who have had an abortion."
When a woman has an abortion she interrupts the natural process of estrogen production and breast development. When a woman first becomes pregnant her body produces a Type 1 carcinogen, cancer causing agent, estrogen in order to nourish and provide for the baby. If the mother has her child, her body stops producing as much estrogen and her breasts mature. However, if that process is interrupted, the estrogen production continues and her breasts stay in an immature state, making them more susceptible to breast cancer.
Groups like Susan G. Komen acknowledge that the level of exposure to estrogen throughout a woman's lifetime is one of the greatest predictors for breast cancer. Sadly, they do not acknowledge that the increased exposure to estrogen after an abortion could increase risks of breast cancer as well. For an organization whose primary goal is "to have a world without breast cancer", you would think they would try to let women know of all the risk factors for breast cancer, especially those that are preventable like abortion.
Recently, in an article by Jill Stanek, pro-life author and blogger, asked a very thought-provoking question, "Is it really "morally permissible" to cause breast cancer in one room if screening for it in the next?"
Read more at LifeNews.com
Posted in Health, Planned Parenthood | Permalink
Comments
Thanks. I didn't know this.
I recently mailed in my own contribution to planned parenthood in one of their postage paid envelopes. Hope they like my "weighty" contribution. Whatever they spend on useless postage is money they can't spend on their "work."
Posted by: Marian | May 31, 2010 10:22 PM
Thanks, Barbara, for posting about this. I think there are a lot of Christians who don't know about the connection between Komen and PP.
Posted by: Sheila | June 1, 2010 12:00 AM
Thanks for posting- I joke that I lost my 'womens card' long ago for not supporting Susan G Koman. I am so happy to see that this news is getting circulated.
Posted by: Michelle | June 1, 2010 7:21 AM
Thank you for this very informative post. I was unaware of the connection between Komen and PP & am happy to spread the word. With respect to the link between breast cancer and abortion, the article states "..if that process is interrupted, the estrogen production continues and her breasts stay in an immature state, making them more susceptible to breast cancer." What happens then when a woman has a miscarriage? Can it be said that a woman who has a miscarriage is also at higher risk for breast cancer?
Posted by: Megan Carr | June 1, 2010 8:55 AM
As transcribed from a recording of the meeting, CRTL asked, "Why aren't women being told about the most preventable risk factor?" to which Komen's Brandorff answered, "We tend to focus on the cure... we're focusing our energies on that, rather than the preventative."
Posted by: Leslie Hanks | June 1, 2010 9:19 AM
WOW - this is outrageous! It's sad what is happening to our country. Thank you for posting this, I would like to re-post this info on my blog. I have some very avid pro-life readers that need to see this. Thank you again!
Posted by: Elisabeth LaMouria | June 1, 2010 9:34 AM
Thanks for posting this!
I have known about this for a while. At my local Tom Thumb when the checker asked me if I wanted to donate to Komen, I said "No thanks, I don't support abortion." Wide eyed, he asked me what I meant, and I explained the Komen/PP link to him. He looked shocked and said he had no idea. The person behind me in line looked shocked too. They've stopped asking me since.
A friend of mine from church lost her mother to breast cancer, does the 3-day every year, and would send out emails to her friends and fellow parishioners asking for support for the 3-day walk in Dallas. I "replied to all" to one of those emails politely declining with the explanation that I will not donate any money to an organization that helps fund Planned Parenthood. She took me off her mailing list after a few of her former supporters replied that they had no idea.
There are other cancer research organizations that don't fund PP that I would happily donate to. But Komen and Avon are two that are checked off of my list.
Posted by: Courageous Grace | June 1, 2010 12:09 PM
Amen Barbara.
On my to-do list as a result of this post: I'm going to get in touch with a popular conservative local radio talk-show host (here in the Seattle area) who is Catholic. He and his wife are huge supporters of the Komen Foundation. It's often bothered me and now I think I'll do something about it!
Posted by: Anne | June 1, 2010 1:01 PM
Megan- having a miscarriage isn't as spontaneous as people think. The body already is starting to reduce the pregnancy hormones so it isn't such a shock to the system however with abortion, there is nothing wrong with the pregnancy so it's a total shock to the system to interrupt it.
Posted by: dirtdartwife | June 1, 2010 9:12 PM
I was aware of the Komen foundation's ties to embryonic stem cell research, but I was not aware of their connection with Planned Parenthood.
If we can not value life in its earliest, most vunerable form, what can we value?
Posted by: j dan | June 1, 2010 10:50 PM
Really? Do you really think that by boycotting Susan G. Komen for the relatively minute amount of money they give to planned parenthood that you are going to stop even one abortion from happening? The fact is that if a woman has made up her mind to have an abortion, she is going to have one and no one or nothing is going to stop her.
The key is to get to her before she's made up her mind. And the way to do that is by supporting programs that will give her an alternative. Programs like birth control, education, job training and health care have all been proven to accomplish this.
You quote Proverbs 6:17 as justification, but by encouraging others to boycott an organization that is doing so much to save lives YOU are now the hand that is spilling innocent blood. I would also like to remind you that Proverbs and the 10 Commandments are all in the Old Testament. Also in the Old Testament is the mandate from Moses that any woman found guilty of adultery be stoned to death. The way it was practiced back then, when a woman was unwed and pregnant, was in fact, a form of abortion.
A true Christian finds strength from their faith and instead of professing outrage and offense all the time, finds a way to get what they want through love. Stop fighting a battle that you will never win and start doing things that really make a difference.
Posted by: Need To Speak | June 2, 2010 3:26 AM
Need to Speak -
The words you use - offense and outrage - are not how I would characterize a recognition that it is wrong to support an organization that withholds vital information from women - such as the link between breast cancer and abortion.
I did not quote a scripture passage, but carried an article that did. Your comment indicates that you are full of offense and outrage - foaming at the mouth with OT-style judgment of others whose call may be different than your own.
I think there's room for both approaches in our Christian faith - love and truth. I practice love in my life by adopting and caring for special needs children - one who would have been aborted.
But I also spread the truth.
It is you who are narrow-minded in thinking it has to be one of the other.
love,
barbara
Posted by: Barbara | June 2, 2010 6:45 AM
I would like to support a breast cancer organization, but not the Komen foundation. Anyone have a good one to suggest? Or where I can find a list that would indicate who they support (ie Planned Parenthood,etc.) so I know where my money is going?
Posted by: debbie | September 20, 2010 5:41 PM
