Last week, Susan G. Komen for the Cure faced a tidal wave of public pressure after it announced that it would no longer be working with Planned Parenthood to provide breast cancer screenings to low-income women. The foundation’s excuse – that Planned Parenthood is under a bogus investigation from a right-wing congressman – didn’t pass muster with the many Americans who think public health charities should prioritize public health. After a few days of changing its story, Komen relented – but not before it became clear that for many of its supporters, women’s health is far more important than partisan politics.
In reaction to Komen’s about-face, People For’s Michael Keegan wrote in the Huffington Post that the same anger that was directed at Komen should be directed at the GOP every time they open a new battle in the War on Women:
I too am angry at Komen's decision to put right-wing ideology ahead of its purported public health mission. But our deeper anger should be directed at someone else: the Republicans in Congress and GOP leaders who consistently make the same choices involving many times more money, and many times more women's lives. The shock of the revelation of Komen's new policies only highlighted how numb many of us have become to the larger, unrelenting attacks on women's health by right-wing elected officials.
On his show on Friday, Rev. Al Sharpton discussed the Komen decision with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and read part of Michael’s piece, saying he "expressed it best":
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