Susan G. Komen foundation, you fail.

I once thought the Susan G. Komen foundation was a wonderful charity, one that deserved all the publicity and funding it could get.  But after a re-post of a picture (shown above) from a former co-worker of mine, and being curious about the group that posted that picture, I found out some things.  Things that frighten and disgust me.

Paraphrased from the Jezebel run-down on the whole debacle:

On Tuesday (January 31), the Komen foundation announced that it would no longer be giving support to Planned Parenthood - one of the few places that disadvantaged women can go to for their sexual and reproductive health needs.  They cited a policy that

"barred them from funneling money to organizations that were under investigation at the local, state, or federal level."

However...

It seemed a little TOO coincidental, as less than a year ago a woman who ran a failed campaign for governor of Georgia in 2010 under a platform of anti-choice was hired as Senior Vice President of Public Policy.

Could the defunding of Planned Parenthood have been a political move forced by external anti-choice voices as well as Komen's own personnel?

The next day, Komen foundation had to run a damage-control operation, deleting unattractive Facebook posts and a tweet sent by none other than the above anti-choice advocate, which told naysayers to "Cry [her] a freaking river." It all culminated in Komen's website being hacked.

On Thursday, corroboration was given that it was indeed Handel (Ms. Anti-Choice) who was behind the whole idea. Quel suprise. Not.

A bunch of people resigned or threatened to resign because of the whole thing.

Thursday and Friday were chock-full of backtracks, empty apologies, and attempted damage control.

Ironically enough, the group that came out on top was Planned Parenthood itself. In one week they received over $3 Million in donations - including $250,000 from Mayor Bloomberg and $100,000 from LIVESTRONG. And Planned Parenthood's president has said that all of that money would be going towards PP's breast health programs. (/sisfist!)

So basically, what we're down to is this: one of the most powerful people in the Komen foundation apparently doesn't like women, and doesn't believe that they should have the right to choose what they do with their own bodies. So she wants to make it so that only the few women that agree with her get the benefit of her foundation's money. Only she doesn't have the ovaries to stand up and actually say that, so she hides behind non-existent "policies" and when that doesn't work, resorts to out-and-out lying.

Now I don't even live in the US anymore*, but if I did? NO WAY IN HELL WOULD THE KOMEN FOUNDATION GET SO MUCH AS A PENNY FROM ME OR ANYONE I KNOW.

I'd like to leave you all with this lady, who is as brave as she is articulate, and has even more right to have a say on the subject than I do:

(* - I AM an American, but one that has lived in the UK for the last 9 years.)