Tampa Bay Komen affiliate fears backlash will hurt local fundraising

Title: Tampa Bay Komen affiliate fears backlash will hurt local fundraising

Author: Jessica Vander Velde

Publication:  Tampa Bay Times

Date: February 10, 2012

When Susan G. Komen for the Cure decided to cut future grants to Planned Parenthood, its Tampa Bay-area affiliate was swept into a controversy that still could cripple its fundraising despite Komen’s reversal. Some Komen supporters had a bad aftertaste from the episode, including Tampa’s Rebecca Schrader. She plans to withhold donations to Komen for a year to make sure the organization continues to fund breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood…

Gina Kravitz, director of the Suncoast Komen affiliate, has been hearing that kind of talk, and she is worried. So on Thursday, she embarked on damage control, speaking out for the first time to distance her group from the national furor…

“We, locally, would not have made that decision,” Kravitz said of the funding cutoff. “We are completely apolitical at the Suncoast affiliate, and we are here to serve anyone who needs us.”

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A skirmish over health gets political; The Female Factor

Title: A skirmish over health gets political; The Female Factor

Author: Luisita Lopez Torregrosa

Publication:  The International Herald Tribune

Date: February 08, 2012

…The outcry that swept across the United States following a decision by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation to cut off financing for Planned Parenthood turned women against women…

It all began when news surfaced that Komen, a Dallas-based fund-raising giant that is the biggest and best-known breast cancer charity in the United States, had decided to end its financial support of Planned Parenthood, a provider of women’s health services including contraceptives, breast examinations and abortions…

The furor was so swift and so strong that The New York Times – sensing a fundamental battle in U.S. society – gave it pride of place on its front page…

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Lila Rose: The Woman Who Sparked the Planned Parenthood Flap

Title: Lila Rose: The Woman Who Sparked the Planned Parenthood Flap

Author: Michelle Goldberg

Publication:  Newsweek

Date: February 6, 2012

Last week, when the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation announced it would stop funding Planned Parenthood, it seemed an enormous victory for the 23-year-old Lila Rose, who has been waging a long media war against the country’s largest abortion and family-planning provider. Initially, the Komen foundation said it was ending grants to Planned Parenthood because of a new policy against supporting groups under government investigation. The only grantee affected by the new policy was Planned Parenthood, which is under investigation by Rep. Cliff Stearns, an anti-abortion Florida congressman who says his inquiry was inspired by Rose’s undercover videos.

Ultimately, of course, Komen reversed its decision. Still, the incident highlighted how effective Rose has been in providing pretexts for those who have long sought to take Planned Parenthood down.

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Some former Susan G. Komen for the Cure supporters bruised over breast cancer org’s funding spat with Planned Parenthood

Title: Some former Susan G. Komen for the Cure supporters bruised over breast cancer org’s funding spat with Planned Parenthood

Author: The Associated Press

Publication: Daily News (New York)

Date: February 06, 2012

When Dorothy Twinney first saw a Race for the Cure walk for breast cancer — “a sea of pink” traveling through her hometown of Plymouth, Mich. — she was so moved she sat in her car and wept.

This week, after watching the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity announce plans to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, then abandon those plans amid a public furor, Twinney decided she was done with the organization. She had raised thousands of dollars for it on three-day, 60-mile walks that left her feet bloodied and blistered, but her spirits high…

The outrage clearly stunned Komen, the country’s most widely known breast cancer organization…

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