Starting last week in a head-snapping series of events, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity cut funding to Planned Parenthood, and after a wave of outcry, reinstituted the funding days later. Along the way it gave a string of seemingly contradictory explanations for its decisions. We break down exactly what Komen said, and how it’s changed.
Tuesday, Jan. 31
Reports emerge that Komen denied funding to Planned
Parenthood…
Komen fails to respond to criticism over its decision for over 36 hours…
The
AP reports Tuesday afternoon that Komen has decided to pull funding from
Planned Parenthood, cutting off hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants used
for breast cancer screening and education for low-income women. Citing a Komen
spokeswoman, the AP says the reason for the cut-off is a recently adopted rule
that prohibits Komen from funding groups under government investigation. Planned
Parenthood was disqualified because it’s
under probe by Representative Cliff Stearns, R-Fl., about whether public
money was improperly spent on abortions.
Planned Parenthood
says it is “alarmed and saddened” Komen is giving in to pressure from
anti-abortion groups and has been influenced by what Planned Parenthood calls a
“politically motivated” Congressional investigation.
Planned Parenthood sends a fundraising email asking its
supporters to donate money to make up the lost Komen grants (which totaled
$680,000 last year). It is met with a
surge in donations.
Social media sites drive a
deluge of comments protesting the decision. On Tuesday night it is one of the
most discussed topics on Twitter.
Komen is silent about the outcry…
Komen makes no mention of the outpouring of criticism in
a statement released to the AP that evening, saying only that it is
“regrettable” that changes in priorities and policies affected its longstanding
partner Planned Parenthood.
Wednesday, Feb. 1
Komen offers multiple explanations for its decision to
defund: tighter grant making requirements, nothing to do with the congressional
investigation, everything to do with the investigation…
“To support [a] new granting strategy, Komen has also
implemented more stringent eligibility standards to safeguard donor dollars.
Consequently, some organizations are no longer eligible to receive Komen
grants,”
“We were giving [Planned Parenthood] money, they were sending
women out for mammograms. What we would like to have are clinics where we can
directly fund mammograms,”
– Komen CEO Brinker
tells the Washington Post
“People don’t understand that a Congressional investigation
doesn’t necessarily mean a problem of substance. When people read about it in
places like Texarkana, Tex., where I’m from, it sounds really bad,”
– Raffaelli
tells the New York Times
Komen issues a statement saying that its actions have been widely
mischaracterized and it needs to set the record straight: In the course of
strengthening
its grant program, the foundation put in place more stringent criteria.
Planned Parenthood simply didn’t make the cut. The statement makes no mention of
the Congressional investigation.
Komen posts a video of Komen CEO Nancy Brinker explaining the
“real story” and saying that Komen would never “bow to
pressure.”
Komen President Elizabeth Thompson tells the Washington Post
that the decision to cut off Planned Parenthood funding “doesn’t
really have anything to do with” the congressional investigation.” Brinker
says Planned Parenthood lost funding because it doesn’t usually provide
mammograms to women directly (instead it gives them referrals to other
clinics).
While Komen says the decision was not meant to target Planned
Parenthood, inside sources offer a different story…
Board member John Raffaelli tells the New York Times that
Komen changed to its grant-making process
specifically to end its relationship with Planned Parenthood. According to
Raffaelli, Komen was worried a congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood
would damage Komen’s credibility.
Thursday, Feb. 2
“Mollie is one of the most highly respected and ethical people
inside the organization, and she felt she couldn’t continue under these
conditions,”
– former Komen senior communications adviser John Hammarley
tells the Atlantic
“Our issue is grant excellence. [Planned Parenthood does]
pass-through grants with their screening grants, they send people to other
facilities. We want to do more direct service grants.”
– Brinker
says on MSNBC
“This troubling decision threatens to reduce access to
necessary, life-saving services. We urge Komen to reconsider its decision,”
–
a letter from 22 senators to CEO Brinker
Brinker holds a news conference and continues to insist that
the changes to grant-making procedures were not meant to specifically target
Planned Parenthood, and had nothing to do with politics or abortion. What she
leaves unmentioned is that Planned Parenthood was the only organization affected
by the policy change.
A report in the Atlantic says that Mollie Williams, Komen’s
top public-health official,
resigned immediately after she learned of the decision to defund Planned
Parenthood in December.
The report in the Atlantic further states that senior vice
president
Karen Handel was behind the decision to cut funding, according to three
inside sources. Handel is well known for her anti-abortion views and has said
that she that she doesn’t support the mission of Planned Parenthood. Handel was
hired last year April after she lost her primary campaign for governor in Georgia
to a more aggressively pro-life candidate. The three sources also told the
Atlantic that the charity had been wanting to break with Planned Parenthood for
quite some time, and the congressional investigation simply provided a way to do
it. Handel has since responded that she had a role in the decision, but to
“suggest that I
had the sole authority is just absurd.”
In an interview on MSNBC, Brinker says that
the decision was not political, and had nothing to do with Karen Handel.
Brinker again says the main reason for the decision was not the congressional
investigation, but rather Komen’s attempt to streamline grants by “putting
metrics, outcomes, and measures to them.”
22 senators
sign a letter urging Komen to reverse its decision and reinstate the grants
to Planned Parenthood.
Kathy Plesser, a member of Komen’s affiliate medical advisory
board in New York City, threatens to resign unless Komen reverses its
decision.
Friday, Feb. 3
Komen retreats, and switches back to pinning the decision on
the 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.”
In an apparent reversal, Komen issues a statement saying that
it will now amend its grant
criteria to only disqualify investigations that are “criminal and conclusive
in nature and not political.” Even though a day earlier Brinker told MSNBC that
the investigation wasn’t “the only issue,” the statement makes no mention of any
other reason (such as streamlining grants or providing mammograms).
The Atlantic releases internal Komen memos including a
Q&A for Komen employees explaining the new grant making criteria, as well as
instructions and talking points for how employees should answer questions
about it. The memos emphasize the investigation as the primary reason for the
funding cut, and make no mention of mammograms.
The AP reports that according to an anonymous source with
“direct knowledge of the decision making process,” Karen Handel, the pro-life
former Republican candidate,
was a driving force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood.
Monday, Feb. 5
Handel again linked to Planned Parenthood decision…
The Huffington Post reports that
Karen Handel was the main force behind the decision to cut funding, according
to a Komen insider. She also crafted the strategy of drafting new guidelines to
disqualify Planned Parenthood, according to emails sent to the Huffington Post
under the condition they not be published.
The AP and Time add
details on Handel’s involvement.
Tuesday, Feb. 7
“The decision to update our granting model was made before I
joined Komen, and the controversy related to Planned Parenthood has long been a
concern to the organization. Neither the decision nor the changes themselves were
based on anyone’s political beliefs or ideology,”
– Karen Handel says in
a letter to Nancy Brinker
Handel, Komen’s vice president of public policy, resigns. She
is the fourth Komen executive to resign or threaten to resign since the Planned
Parenthood decision was announced.
Wednesday, Feb. 8
Brinker says mistakes were made…
“If I have learned nothing else from our experience of the past week, it is that we in women’s health organizations must be absolutely true to our core missions, and avoid even the appearance of bias or judgment in our decisions.”
– Nancy Brinker says in a letter to Sally Quinn
In her first public comments since the reversal decision, Brinker admits she “made some mistakes,” and apologizes for how her organization “mishandled the situation.” Her note is addressed to Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, who wrote an open letter to Brinker the day before saying that she, along with many others, felt betrayed.
