Curing or Covering Up

Susan G. Komen Foundation's Connections to Planned Parenthood

The Susan G. Komen Foundation is one of our nation’s leading breast cancer advocacy groups. They sponsor the Race for the Cure where more than a million people worldwide walk, run and jog to raise money to help find the cure for breast cancer. The Komen Foundation also spends money to try to educate women on certain risk factors that are associated with breast cancer. Unfortunately, their web site doesn’t tell visitors that numerous studies have shown that abortion, especially before having a full term pregnancy, increases a woman’s risk of getting breast cancer later in life. Their web site even informs visitors that abortions “do not increase the risk of breast cancer” and even lists a couple of flawed studies that found that having abortions slightly decreases the risk of breast cancer. What the Komen Foundation fails to mention is that 28 out of 37 worldwide studies and 13 out of 16 studies on American women show a link between induced abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer.

The Komen Foundation has also drawn heat in recent years for providing grants to Planned Parenthood, America’s top abortion provider. According to the Komen’s Foundation former Public Relation Manager, Kristin Kelly, local Komen Foundation affiliates gave 21 grants totaling around $500,000 to local Planned Parenthood affiliates in 2003. This money is supposed to be used for breast cancer screening and referrals, but it also allows Planned Parenthood to spend its other funds providing and promoting abortion. Even though local Planned Parenthood affiliates were receiving around half a million dollars in 2003 from the Komen Foundation specifically for breast care exams/care, the number of breast exams/care provided by Planned Parenthood dropped 13.3% in 2003.

In September of 2004, a research analyst for the Komen Foundation named Eve Sanchez Silver quit her position when she found out that some Komen affiliates were sending money to Planned Parenthood. Regarding her resignation Silver said, “As a Christian and life-affirming citizen I can not reconcile The Foundation’s decision to affirm life with one hand and support its destruction with the other.” After she quit, Silver indicated that many Komen affiliates were low on funds at the time of the grants to Planned Parenthood, an organization that grosses millions of dollars in profits every year. A cash strapped organization hoping to help women with breast cancer should not be providing funds to one of the most profitable “non-profits,” Planned Parenthood. The connection may be Susan G. Komen Foundation’s founder Nancy Brinker. Ms. Brinker is also on the advisory council of the Planned Parenthood of North Texas, one of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliates in the country.

It is important for people interested in finding a cure to breast cancer to let the Komen Foundation know that providing financial support to an organization whose “services” increase the risk of breast cancer isn’t the best way to go about eradicating breast cancer.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation
can be contacted by letter at:
Susan G. Komen Foundation
Headquarters
5005 LBJ Freeway, Suite 250
Dallas, TX 75244
By telephone: 972-855-1600

Or by contacting them online at: http://www.komen.org/contacts.aspx