UPDATE: See posts atop the fold about Komen rescinding their decision to withdraw funding and future applications for funding from Planned Parenthood, dateline Feb 3, 2012)
Duke, a progressive university with a strong med school may have ‘a problem, Houston.” They’ve invited Brinker along with four other notable people to do 2012 commencement. Problem may rise up with parts of vocal student body and profs, as they now realize Brinker just cut off Planned Parenthood from Komen funding for breast cancer screenings and breast cancer education for poor and needful women.
Brinker says she and her board convened some new ‘rules.’ That PP got cut off because of new stringent funding rules that preclude any org that is being investigated from receiving funds from Komen… even though, as I read it, Brinker says they fund in over 50 countries worldwide.
. My question would be then, so how do you know if clinics in other countries are being investigated or not? and would you trust third world and dictatorial or faux democratic or corp run governments to ‘investigate’ in all truth and justice? Really?
Here in the US, a republican congressperson began an ‘investigation’ into Planned Parenthood that sounds more like harrassment… “to see if PP is living up to the federal rules for abortion.”
I’m a woman who is a pro life person for myself and my daughters. Meaning I will do all I can, and have, to bring life to fruition, even though the circumstances have been far far from ideal. And for me, that was right. But/and, in no way will I try to pressure all others about what they ought do, especially in cases of rape and incest, abject poverty and being with abusers. If I’m asked, I will say/ offer my thoughts on what I see as precious life in utero, but knowing that most women find that so, even if they think/ feel they cannot continue the life of this embryo. That is why they suffer often with their choices.
The idea that some denigrators of women throw about… that women who come to the heavy decision to terminate the pregnancy are monsters…. reminds me of the spewers of propaganda against the Chinese in WWII [for a US secret at that time: horrible counter-moves against targeted segments of the Chinese in order to provoke rage and ramp up their support to fight Japan], creating posters showing deep yellow skin, slanted eyes and yellow buck teeth, with Chinese soldiers gutting babies on bayonets (this image was used for any Asian who was considered ‘enemy.’ And it is similar bloated propaganda re women. And, this attack on women insisting despite facts (such as I’ve heard in my consulting room for more than 40 years now, often many many years after a woman’s had an abortion and is still in sincere regret and sorrow) that women so choosing to end a pregnancy dont give a good g-d dang, makes no sense for most women I know… So, if I’m asked, I can gently say my piece which is mainly about not panicking, and seeking many means of support if one can, even from strangers if need be … but otherwise, I keep my own counsel.
I despise seeing anti-abortion groups standing on street corners screaming and screeching and bellowing like rutting animals at women who are entering a clinic, projecting onto her, most often falsely, that she’s on her way to go have her 20th abortion as idle entertainment. That projection onto strangers is egregious and in most cases, the bearing of false witness…which is completely antithetical to the premises of the religion the screamers say they follow.
But, I digress. Back to Duke’s invite to Brinker. We’ll have to wait to see what happens next. Brinker is a careerist woman, who has climbed the ladder of influence. Her organization has exploited to the max her sister’s dying request. I dont say that negatively, but with several books by Brinker, tours, speaking engagements, fund raising, putting in to be nominated for awards of all kinds, it appears that every avenue to raise money –and be recognized– has been hit and hard.
I see that the Komen org is 30 years old and claims it has given 2 billion dollars away in 30 years. For some reason, I’d thought it was far, far more than that per year. I’m still going to look at annual report, and also see about FOIA on line item budget for Komen for the Cure. I’d like to know how much the execs get paid, what perks the board gets, where they trim the budget, and most of all, where they dont.
As for Duke, we’ll see who’ll cut off whom, if/when.
Here’s more about Brinker’s life: Brinker in 1982 founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure after promising her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer. Komen for the Cure says they have invested almost $2 billion to research, community health, advocacy and global programs that serve hundreds of thousands of women in more than 50 countries.
Brinker, herself a breast cancer survivor, was U.S. Ambassador to Hungary (ambassadorships can come from having an ‘in’ via a president, and sometimes by having made a huge monetary contribution in support of that president or just be one of the in-crowd) from 2001 to 2003 and U.S. Chief of Protocol (which is like hospitality charge nurse, offering social times for foreign mission folks, and visiting leaders, and ensuring their time spent in the US is “positive and productive.) from 2007 to the end of the George W. Bush administration.
In 2009, President Barack Obama named Brinker a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for her work to end breast cancer.
She serves as the World Health Organization’s Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control and has written four books, including the New York Times best-seller “Promise Me,” about Komen’s growth from a promise made to her sister to the global organization of today.
See also: Shaun Mullen writes about the Komen debacle above the fold today, and Taylor Marsh’s article calling out the liberals for being asleep is farther down the TMV stack.