The Susan G. Komen foundation has pulled all of it grants from Planned Parenthood, money that was used to fund preventative screening for breast cancer in Planned Parenthood clinics. What is shocking (to no one, really) is that the Susan G. Komen Foundation was under pressure from Anti-Choice groups to stop giving money to Planned Parenthood. Since Planned Parenthood’s services largely aid low-income women, the lack of funding for these screenings will only directly aid and abed in the health disparities that low-income women face everyday.
Breast cancer research is now clearly only for the well-to-do. I’d go one step further and state that when you cave to anti-woman politics, you are anti-woman. For shame Susan G. Komen Foundation.
To make an emergency donation to Planned Parenthood in the wake of this debacle, please go here.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
For the record, PP doesn’t actually do mammograms, just the “touch test” that women should already do on their own.
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Kelsey, thank you for the clarification. They also provide referrals for mammogram providers, as well as information– such as how to do a “touch test”, which some women may not know.
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A lot of women, particularly low-income women, don’t have access to the ob/gyns and family doctors who would tell them how to perform the touch tests vital to cancer detection. After all, it’s not like we have comprehensive sex education in public schools that teaches women how to perform these vital tests. Furthermore, while self-detection is important, a skilled physician is more likely to pick up on small and/or embedded tumors within the breast tissue. The cancer screening services Planned Parenthood provides are essential to the health of people who can’t otherwise afford basic healthcare, and to write them off as something “women should already do on their own” is a myopic view on the importance of these services.
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It is despicable to put politics ahead of the health of women, and especially women who may not be able to get the care they need without the funds the Komen foundation gave to PP. I’m sick of people buying into anti-choice lies about PP. The majority of their services are things like this — breast exams, PAP smears, general reproductive health care — and by caving to anti-choice pressure and ending their support, the Susan G. Komen foundation is harming low-income women who need these services. (Also, that is not to say that it is bad at all that PP offers abortions, because that is a vital part of women’s healthcare, just to say that the abortions are a minority of PP’s services). Argh, I’m too angry about this to be articulate.
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