Patty Murray, Barbara Boxer React To Susan G. Komen Reversal Of Planned Parenthood Defunding

After facing enormous backlash to its controversial plan to stop funding Planned Parenthood breast cancer screenings, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has reversed its decision and issued an apology.

On Friday morning, founding chairwoman Nancy Brinker issued a statement expressing her concern that the public believed Komen was acting politically by pulling its funding:

We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives.

The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.

Here's a look at how some lawmakers are reacting to the reversal:

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Comments

[roooth]

08:52 PM on 02/07/2012

The extremists on the Right are trying to do to PP what they did to Kerry - swift boat it with lies

[Winstonoboogie]

11:15 AM on 02/05/2012

If the Komen organization had simply done 'what is right and fair' to begin with, they would have saved themselves a lot of bad publicity.

[SteveG83]

10:53 AM on 02/05/2012

They made a very dumb mistake tying the benefit of womens' health to politics..... apologized.....restored the funding.... can't it be left alone at that. Nobody can deny all the good Komen has done for breast cancer research for women over the years.

To continue to "hate" and penalize them by not supporting anymore will only decrease the benefits they provide for millions of women... kind of like cutting of your nose to support your face....

[sylvia wadlington]

10:58 AM on 02/05/2012

People will keep giving to the cause, but never again through the Komen foundation, they have proven that they are against Women's Rights and now Zero Tolerance kicks in.

[SteveG83]

10:59 AM on 02/05/2012

oops "to spite your face"

[roooth]

08:47 PM on 02/07/2012

ooops - do some research, find out how disproportionatly high it turns out Komen's ratio is for Administrative costs and you might rethink giving to them again.

Will you feel the same when you know that most of the donantions went to paying high salaries?

[irt2ltee]

06:40 AM on 02/05/2012

those planned parenthood offices do not come equipped with mammogram machines. who are they kidding.If i donated money to the Komen foundation I expect the money to used for research for the cure of breast cancer...and not fund abortion clinics via a lame excuse to fund mammogram tests. There is one reason why cancer research and cure is forever not found..the cure is probably already out there..its these kind of charities that stopping the cure just so they could make some monies for their own ulterior motives..federal grants,big ass donations and RAK's -random act of kindness by individuals who believe in the charity's mission statement.. Please send you money direct to the hospital or cancer research and clinical trial programs..they are more reliable. Mixing cancer research and planned parenthood is more of a political gaming.

[Patricia013]

07:33 PM on 02/06/2012

....lame excuse....you can give to SGK where 75 percent will be frittered away and only 25 percent will filter down to research...OR you can give to National Breast Cancer Research! Nobody is forcing you to give to PP!!!

[Rollin McKim]

10:00 PM on 02/04/2012

Shame Komen cannot give according to it's own priorities, in this case Breast Cancer, I believe.

Shame there is such a "NOT from my back pocket" (aka: Give me that money) mentality in America today.

[trainer3]

09:58 PM on 02/04/2012

Shaheen says: "...efforts to protect women's health care from extremist attacks. We must make clear that women's health care is too important to be politicized."

How about everyone's health and not just in the popular field of B cancer. I have P cancer. Where is my pink shirt that says 'aren't you glad you have never heard a doctor say, "You got some serious cancer, dude." '

[sylvia wadlington]

10:40 AM on 02/05/2012

Fanned and Faved.

[trainer3]

09:34 PM on 02/04/2012

I have cancer, and we have nothing in Komen.

[coloradodreaming]

09:10 PM on 02/04/2012

As a woman under attack by the right for right to my own healthcare decisions I will do the one thing that I can. I'm sending any and all donations directly to Planned Parenthood so the largest amount of every dollar donated isn't taken by the Komen Foundation. If I had known all of the underbelly of the Komen group I would not have sent a dime nor sponsored another relative in their race for the cure. This is one of my greatest disappointments in any fund raisers that I thought was legit.

[KickstandCat]

10:05 AM on 02/05/2012

Amen, Sister. Me too!

[kareemachan]

07:14 PM on 02/04/2012

Patty Murray is one reason I don't agree with the simplistic notion of "throw them all out of Congress!!" people. She's good. She's smart. She's in it for her constituents, military families, and the country.

[Artanis71]

06:37 PM on 02/04/2012

Haha the right wingers are collective spasm as usual, there is now a foxnews poll asking "Should donors be able to get back their contributions to charity if the charity changes its policies?"

Classic

[TreborNicosia]

06:03 PM on 02/04/2012

Note to comment posters: whoever is moderating the comments for the Richard Eskow OpEd is absulutely filtering out opposing comments. I am new to posting comments on Huffington Post, but all need to be aware that moderators are not unbiased in their choosing of posts.

[kareemachan]

07:25 PM on 02/04/2012

Not as biased as you are.

[trainer3]

09:40 PM on 02/04/2012

I am new and I now know you who are new are so right for a new person. You are like...new Gingrich. This is new to me. Thank you, I am driving toward new york, and I love noodles. If the moderators let this important new comment through, I will sing an Anthony Newly song.

"what kind of....fool am I...why can't I fall in love...with any other man... then maybe then I'll know....what kind of new I...ammmm"

[TreborNicosia]

05:31 PM on 02/04/2012

I am not sure why my comment of two hours ago has not yet posted on Richard Eskow's article, so here is a comment made by one hugely followed super user "rmax53" and my response.

RM: Since my federal tax money goes to support some research organizati­ons, I'll reserve my charitable donations to organizati­ons that provide direct services, like Planned Parenthood and my local animal shelter.

TN: Perfect! rmax53, thanks for letting us know that "Planned Parenthood" and "animal shelters" are equal in your eyes and with your wallet. Not bad considering that the top two activities of PP and animal shelters are also the same: neutering and killing the unwanted.

I am new to this board, but I can see that it doesn't take much to become a super user...

[trainer3]

09:41 PM on 02/04/2012

This is important stuff. It is so important that

[TreborNicosia]

05:21 PM on 02/04/2012

I am not sure why my comment of two hours ago has not yet posted on Richard Eskow's article, so here is a comment made by one hugely followed "trydecency" and my response.

TD: No one should be surprised by any of this or by similar scandals at other organizations -- or by Tim Tebow displaying his antics all over televised football games. It's all connected. The religious right is quite open about its campaign to infiltrate organizations, corporations and other institutions in order to impose its agenda on Western society. It's time for people to start calling out the religious right for what it is -- a dangerous movement that threatens our democracy. This Komen debacle is just the latest example. There will be many more.

TN: Oops. I think what you really meant to write was the truth: the right, and especially the religious right, have done more in the last three decades to promote democracy in the world than anyone associated with your leftist nonsense. Who caused the fall of the Berlin wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union, which has ultimately led to the Arab Dawn? Ronald Reagan and John Paul The Great -- both who were right, literally and figurative¬ly. I do agree with one point of yours: there will be many more "Komen-like" examples. I look forward to them so that chaff like you can more easily recognized and separated from wheat like me.

[AdelaideDweller]

06:22 PM on 02/04/2012

The seven Republicans who voted in favor of retaining federal funding for Planned Parenthood, in addition to Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe, all hail from this tradition. Beyond their obvious support for pro-choice causes, these individuals are also characterized by a commitment to centrist policies and fiscal largesse — all indicative of their opposition to the principles of traditional, constitutional government. Ever since its earliest days, Planned Parenthood has counted among its supporters prominent members of the Republican Party. As early as 1942, Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of President George W. Bush, was a supporter of Margaret Sanger’s American Birth Control League, and in 1947, served as the treasurer for the first national campaign for Planned Parenthood. The political repercussions hit hard. Prescott Bush was knocked out of an expected victory for a Senate seat in Connecticut in 1950 after syndicated columnist Drew Pearson declared that it "has been made known" that Bush was a leader in the "Birth Control Society" (the original name of Planned Parenthood was the Birth Control Federation of America). Prescott Bush won a Senate seat two years later, and his son George and daughter-in-law Barbara continued to support Planned Parenthood even after George's election to Congress from Texas. In fact, he was such an advocate for family planning that some House colleagues nicknamed him "Rubbers."

[sylvia wadlington]

10:50 AM on 02/05/2012

Sorry about that! There certainly will be some collateral damage If we manage to get all REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTIONISTS voted out of washington, but it is the only way to end the WAR on WOMEN'S RIGHTS and those you speak of are in the line of fire. Women of America intend to keep their right to decide their own health issues and the escalating attacks on birthcontrol only make it more important that ALL REPUBLICANS are voted out.

[AdelaideDweller]

06:24 PM on 02/04/2012

"Planned Parenthood Republicans: A Decades-Long History "

Back in 1937,Barry Goldwater's wife Peggy had become a founding member of Planned Parenthood of Arizona, and the couple remained active in the organization throughout Goldwater's Senate career. Though he initially rejected Planned Parenthood's position on abortion, his long association with the group would ultimately make a convert of him, also as he personally approved of his daughter Joanne’s illegal abortion in 1951, as recounted in the HBO documentary Mr. Conservative.

[Zen0469]

05:12 PM on 02/04/2012

Well Nancy Brinker. YOU are under investigation, so guess what? I won't be donating to your organization this year.

What is right and fair is for people to donate to legitimate breast cancer research organizations. Sorry, that leaves you out!

[joemondo]

05:07 PM on 02/04/2012

Thank you Senator Murray for speaking up. This was a start.

Komen needs to be investigated for deceptive fundraising. If, as it now seems, it is a PAC masquerading as a cancer charity, it must be corrected.