FAYETTEVILLE — The poor Susan G. Komen for the Cure folks seemed a bit shell-shocked last week.
The organization that fights breast cancer was treated like an unwanted disease by people it had counted among its friends. When Komen put in place a policy that would bar grant funding for organizations under the cloud of an investigation, they thought they were doing right by those who entrust Komen with their donations.
The problem is the Komen organization’s policy cut funding for Planned Parenthood, the mother of all women’s health issues, apparently. After a few days of unintended controversy, the Komen group relented. Planned Parenthood, in the meantime, had gladly accepted a wave of donations that totaled more than $600,000.
It’s almost hard to believe these two organizations share a common goal, women’s health. Some Planned Parenthood supporters who had also been Komen backers reacted quickly and with passion, ready to cut any ties and end donations to Komen.
How dare Komen step out of line?
Clearly, some support for Komen wasn’t just about breast cancer, no matter how hard the organization has attempted to keep itself out of the fray of other women’s health issues. The decision last week certainly wasn’t a change of heart among Komen’s leadership about fighting breast cancer. Did those folks who have donned pink ribbons, run so many kilometers and supported those who have battled this disease really believe the Komen folks were suddenly less committed to the eradication of breast cancer? Isn’t that why they supported them in the first place?
One would have hoped the Komen organization evaluated the fallout from this decision beforehand and made it based on its leaders’ view about what’s best for the fight against breast cancer. If that was their focus and they believed in the decision, all the gnashing of teeth by people with broader political motivations shouldn’t matter. Only the people at the helm of Komen are intensely focused on what’s best for their organization. The rest are guided by other political influences.
It’s entirely reasonable for any nonprofit group focused on one major goal to be careful about letting itself get entangled in other causes that distract from its goal.
The problem for Komen is it got in bed with Planned Parenthood in the first place. From that moment, any decision short of continued funding would always be viewed as a slap in the face to the abortion rights advocates.
When I see the masses of women and men running in the many Komen events each year, I know they are united in one goal. Within those fast-moving crowds, there are people who are for abortion and against. The crowd includes supporters of Planned Parenthood and those who cannot stand the organization. Runners include extreme liberals and conservatives and everything in between.
On many other topics, those runners might nearly come to blows in the heat of discussion.
But on the topic of the day, which is ending the disease of breast cancer, they are united.
With its decision, however, Komen couldn’t avoid what it wanted to dodge. There was no way to redirect funding without disturbing the sensitive beehive surrounding the queen bee of women’s health, that of reproductive rights.
People who previously showed a strong commitment to the eradication of breast cancer declared their true colors — if Komen doesn’t maintain funding for Planned Parenthood, they said, they’ll take their financial support elsewhere.
That’s their right, just as it’s the right of the Komen organization to put its money where it believes it will do the best work in the fight against breast cancer. Komen, a wildly successful organization for an incredibly important cause, was right to do what’s best for its future.
In the end, Komen caved because of the controversy the group had wanted so badly to avoid. They clearly didn’t think through the probable backlash.
Even though the group ran for cover late in the week, its initial desire to steer clear of relationships that might adversely affect its single-minded goal of eliminating breast cancer was a smart and careful strategy.
Regaining political points with the abortion rights crowd, the ones who most vocally decried the funding cut, cannot be Komen’s concern. If it is, there’s probably another backlash just waiting to come.
Greg Harton is editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times.