Komen Catastrophe

In the past couple of weeks, the Susan G Komen foundation made some terrible mistakes that will be likely to impact the long-term reputation of the charity.  A representative of the Komen foundation announced that they would no longer be giving money to Planned Parenthood, an institution that offers services to women that could lead to early detection of cancer, or offer preventative measures. Once this was announced, social media websites lit up instantly. People were outraged with the decision made by the Susan G Komen foundation, and counteracted the movement by donating their own money to the cause, over seven million dollars was raised.

As if this decision was not bad enough, a few days after the announcement was made, they retracted it. They decided to give the original funding back to Planned Parenthood. This was a stupid decision, in my opinion. They probably would have been better off standing firm on their original decision. Now, not only do they have a bad name for denying funding to Planned Parenthood, but they look weak as well. They took a beating from the media, so they decided to change their minds. Better still, Planned Parenthood proved that they did not need the funding anyway. They proved this when they raised way more than they would have received from the Komen foundation anyway, and they did it in a matter of days.

If the Komen foundation wanted to take a stand on abortion, fine. I would not necessarily advise them to do that, but they certainly have the right to do so. They did not seem to have any solid grounds in pulling their funding though, since their money was not being used toward abortions anyway. The money was specifically being used toward education, detection, and treatment of cancer, which makes perfect sense. They are going to have challenges in the upcoming months, and even years, as they work toward restoring their reputation as best they can.

Gillyan Gowarty
Communication Studies
Wilkes 2013

#CorruptCharity

The Susan G. Komen Foundation cut their funding for Planned Parenthood last week and to no surprise, this didn't go unnoticed. People took to social media with an endless barrage of hate toward the most widely known, largest and best-funded breast cancer organization in the United States. Throughout the past 5 years, the Susan G. Komen Foundation has donated money for over 170,000 breast exams at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. What has changed? Why did they cut funding? And why did they reverse their decision in nearly 36 hours?

Right now, every finger points at Karen Handel, a Republican who at one time ran for governor in Georgia and then called for a "defunding" of Planned Parenthood. "I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood," said Handel.  With this controversy and public outcry, Handel immediately "stepped down," the $700,000 was instantly re-instated. The part that doesn't make sense to me, is the fact that this funding has been going on for the past 5 years. How did a women's organization for women, let this happen?

What ever happened to a secular organization not tainted by politics or a fictitious bible? Moral people make moral decisions, not decisions that hurt so many women by eliminating their breast cancer screenings. I can understand that there are many issues associated with Planned Parenthood, when it comes to their view on abortion but none of the $700,000 Komen was donating was even going to abortion. Not only did the Susan G. Komen Foundation lose a lot of money from potential donors, they lost my respect and they most certainly lost yours.

When two leading women's organizations butt heads the only people that suffer are the very women they are supposedly taking care of. It seems that this organization lacked a leader with common sense; didn't they know by cutting funding they would be cutting out support from a slew of their donors. Just look at the PR nightmare Komen started on #Twitter.

Bryan Calabro
Integrative Media/Communication Studies
Wilkes 2013