A famous breast cancer research charity, the Susan G. Komen foundation, has decided to pull its funding of free breast cancer screenings for underprivileged women at 19 of Planned Parenthood’s 83 affiliates. The Susan G. Komen board has apparently caved to the pressure of right-wing, anti-abortion politicians, citing a new policy barring funding for any groups under investigation. Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation by Congress.
This ‘investigation’ was instigated last fall by Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida, considered by many to be one of the most militant anti-choice members of Congress, after Congress failed to pass bill after bill to defund reproductive health services to women.
It’s considered a sham because the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General along with state Medicaid programs already audit Planned Parenthood. These audits have not revealed any pattern of behavior that would warrant Congressional investigation.
If the Susan G. Komen foundation’s board does not reconsider this decision, hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants that were used by Planned Parenthood to provide breast cancer screenings and other related services will be lost.
Credo Action puts the number at close to $1 million. Reacting to Komen’s decision, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said, “It’s hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women’s lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying.” Unsurprisingly, Credo Action has begun a petition to pressured the Susan G. Komen board to reverse their decision; Planned Parenthood is taking a different tack, requesting emergency donations instead.
Unfortunately, this kind of runaround keeps a lot of focus and energy on reacting and fighting so as not to lose ground, rather than on actually moving forward with women’s health issues. After all, screening is important; searching for cures to cancer is important; education about healthy lifestyle choices and making healthy alternatives actually available to women in poverty is crucial. They are worth standing up for.
But in all this I keep seeing a glaring omission: Who is looking into the environmental causes of breast cancer (or any cancer)? Not all women who develop breast cancer have a family history of the disease as a factor, and you can read here about one woman’s decision to start her own foundation to research that very thing. We need to clear a lot of bullshit out of the way of women’s health issues so we can get down to the fundamentals, and it’s time to start thinking in terms of whole systems, whole bodies, whole health and whole Earth. Clearly there are forces determined to stand in the way and keep all of us — male and female alike — as divided against ourselves as we are against each other. We need to see it for what it is, and cultivate the opposite.
I agree that breast cancer screening isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It may well be a contributing factor to cancers forming or disruptive “health” practices being taken when doing nothing (or something else) would be the better way.
And when I think of the fundraisers that the Komen Fdn does, there’s the whole question of the *industry* of cancer research and funding…sheesh, that’s a book or two in and of itself.
I’ve been wondering about what causes any ill health. I’m thinking there’s a whole lot more that we as individuals do and can do to affect our own health, mostly in the realm of beliefs. I’ll leave it at that for now.
What I find most interesting about this story is the speed and breadth of reaction, and how much the mainstream media are covering it — especially the revelations of Komen executive who ran for public office on what apparently was a very anti-choice platform. Seems like here’s one veil being lifted…how many more?
here’s an interesting new development; mars stepping up, a la being in Virgo & opp Venus?
here’s a letter from NY mayor Bloomberg:
zerosity is right it, is the Mars retro opposition to Venus that is bringing this standoff to light. It shows up in the Winter Solstice (12/22/11) through the Sun (conscious) conjunct Pluto (death) in Capricorn (establishment) square Uranus (independence) in Aries (newborn) who is supplying the surprise element. In that chart, Mars was at 17+ Virgo opposite Ceres at 22+ Pisces where Venus was when this story broke.
But there is also the separating opposition between Saturn (restriction and . . ) in Libra (marital monogamy. .thanks Fe) and Jupiter(generous) in Taurus (funding). At the time of the Winter Solstice, Black Moon Lilith was conjunct Jupiter, a position which she still maintains. Eris at 21 Aries and Nessus at 20 Aquarius were sextile in the Solstice chart and they formed a yod to Mars in Virgo, a prodding effect, who was conjunct Psyche. At that time Mars was caught “in the south bending” of the moon’s nodes, a position that makes expression difficult and requires a “letting go of” or “giving away of” the energies of the planet in that south bending position. As Fe says, “there’s more to this than meets the eye.”
be
Amanda:
You’ve hit something on the head with the environmental causes of breast cancer, and it’s dawning out there there’s more to SGK’s decision than meets the eye — certainly more than hypocrisy about pulling funding away from organizations under federal investigation like Planned Parenthood.
There is a principal funding group inside the SGK Foundation called the Millionaire’s Club, whose corporate members are all under some kind of federal or state scrutiny for malfeasance and environmental harm.
Check out this link:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/01/1060683/-Susan-G-Komen-Foundation-Whos-Under-Investigation?via=siderecent
There is more to this than meets the eye. Corporations are to the early 21st century what Catholic clergy were to the end of the 20th century. Time to roll up our sleeves, turn on the klieg lights and take these bastards down.
witchhunt. this. you all are brilliant!
i’ve had problems with komen fdn for years, never did their races, didn’t contribute, and got treated like i was anti-woman because of it. i don’t do big charity races, just smaller ones i support. don’t like the disease-machine approach.
patti.t … I tend to agree with you. When I heard that the Komen fdtn was pulling their support for mammograms, I thought: Hell, yeah. I think m’grams are simply one more way to keep the medical industrialists in the driver’s seat.
But I have a feeling (just my gut) that PP uses the funding in diverse ways, may be billed to breast-cancer screening, but goes to fill in the shortfalls elsewhere. I am scrutinizing billing procedures right now, and there is a lot of wiggle room.
And really, this is about shaming and diminishing women’s access to legal abortion. No matter which way you turn the cup, it keeps catching *that* light.
According to a Huffington Post article today:
“Komen’s new vice president, Karen Handel, had run for governor of Georgia in 2010 on an aggressively anti-abortion and anti-Planned Parenthood platform and was endorsed by Sarah Palin because of her opposition to reproductive choice. Handel wrote in her campaign blog that she ‘do[es] not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.’
‘During my time as Chairman of Fulton County, there were federal and state pass-through grants that were awarded to Planned Parenthood for breast and cervical cancer screening, as well as a ‘Healthy Babies Initiative,’ ‘ Handel wrote. ‘Since grants like these are from the state I’ll eliminate them as your next Governor.’ She also wrote that she opposes stem cell research and supports crisis pregnancy centers, which are unregulated, Christian-run operations whose main mission is to convince pregnant women not to have abortions.
After Handel lost the gubernatorial primary, Susan G. Komen for the Cure named her to be its senior vice president in April 2011.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/komen-planned-parenthood-cuts-karen-handel_n_1245568.html?ref=mostpopular
Ooops. I meant the boobs want to control the breasts.
JannKinz
With the cost of health care and insurance, it’s not just the poor who need PP.
Killing the planet, as in Mother Earth, as in a feminine archetype/symbol.
Venus – Mars Rx opposition. Rx Mars compromised and Venus in her dignity. Perhaps at first blush, this is all about a traditional view of this opposition, and those doing the bullying didn’t read today’s PW Daily Astro Blog posting.
It’s not just about uterine control (as Eric notes). The boobs want to control the boobs, too.
JannKinz
Something new will rise; something that is beyond what PP was. That is the “only” answer in this painfully-long-life-sucking-segue. (Yes and as well, I am sick of the cancer industry spreading lies that we don’t know what causes cancer and that we do not have real cures.) However, as regards the “segue” — there are still plenty of women who need/rely on the screenings and other many health services of PP. Thx for posting, A.
fe – thanks for the quote and for the link. there’s one phrase in that last paragraph that actually made me shudder with a visceral sensation in my abdomen. i’m sure you can guess which one.
Amanda:
This issue strikes right at the heart of the right-wing agenda where they’re killing two birds with one cancelled check:
No funds for research gathering for causes of breast cancer, abetting the industrial environmental criminals, AND death to poor women and all women who engage outside of the “virginity to marital monogamy” norm, abetting the religious whack jobs.
The conservatives really did a number when they trifected the religious right, the military and the corporations as a solidified political amalgam. Starting with the fucking over of women and ending all the way with killing the planet. Same metaphor made real individually and globally.
I want to lay down an excerpt from Amanda Marcotte’s brilliant piece on this item:
MORE:
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/reproductive-health-care-is-the-21st-century-version-of-witchcraft
Patti,
Not to mention mammograms are radiation so women are using radiation to screen for cancer. There are better ways to screen for breast cancer but insurance won’t pay and they are still very expensive.
Not to be a pain but screening is increasingly being seen as ineffective. Too tired tonight to search out all the refs but there’s decades worth. I remember writing alot about this in the mid 90s. Here’s a NYT summary of a recent one: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/health/research/02screening.html. Maybe it’s not a setback – maybe it’s a chance to reimagine what we could spend that money on that is effective and really does help/empower women (not Gardisil!)? Too much of ‘women’s healthcare’ only seems to serve to help women wage war on their bodies – IMHO. That’s kind of a Neptune-y thing isn’t it – trying to see what’s true and what’s not?