The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation caused quite a stir this week when the organization announced it would no longer fund Planned Parenthood. Today that announcement wasreversedand founder Nancy Brinker apologized, noting that people were presuming the charity pulled its funding for political reasons. The issue got SpokaneFAVS contributors thinking:
Time for pro-life advocates to take a stand By Contributor Eric Blauer
Susan B. Komen is in the midst of a public relations battle since it chose to stop funding Planned Parenthood and now has slightly receded on that decision.
If you are a pro-life supporter then it's time to step up to the plate and make your position clear to this organization and others: that life advocates will financially support those who refuse to fund abortion services. Pro-choice advocates are rallying to shame and punish this organization through mass media, congressional pressure and Internet blitzkriegs. They are saying it's all in the name of women's health; primarily the loss of access to breast exams, but the reality is they are fighting for abortion rights, unlimited access and funding. I think the breast exam angle is a smokescreen and the pro-life community needs to step up, make their voices heard and openly communicate their commitment to women, babies and life. Women's Health for Planned Parenthood is nothing more than a Trojan horse for a multi-million dollar industry funded primarily through abortion.
The support of life from conception, through pregnancy and after birth has been at the core of true health care since antiquity: The oath of Hippocrates (460-357 BC): “…Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion.” Don't be intellectually bamboozled, socially bullied and culturally cornered by the progressive media machine. It's time to support those organizations that truly care for women, health and life.
It's not about abortion By Contributors Jim and Andy CastroLang
Whenever the position on abortion colors any public discussion, it makes us uncomfortable.
We find the extremes on both sides who dominate the conversation care little about facts or sharing some honest or deep perspective. They care about protecting their turf and mortally wounding their opponents. We are not sure there is any helpful way to enter this kind of conversation. We believe the Susan G. Komen Foundation had some pressure from within and without to withdraw support for Planned Parenthood.
The foundation did not decide this on the merits and only used the congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood as a foil in their reasoning. Fortunately, the outcry from women across the country accomplished something important. Since the political pressure was now coming from two directions it allowed Komen to get centered again and remember why they funded Planned Parenthood in the first place.
This funding is not the place to have the abortion debate as none of this funding had anything remotely to do with abortion or a woman considering an abortion.
As pastors, we see no moral issue to debate here. Helping prevent breast cancer and treating those with breast cancer in the early stages are good things.
Oh yes, there is one moral issue here — staying centered in who you are at the core of your being, staying aware of your core values and not letting political pressures and fear tactics blow you off course. Susan G. Komen forgot about its core for a few days. Fortunately, the American public and especially the women who have seen the good work that was being threatened, helped Komen to remember its central mission. Today is a good day!
As for the abortion debate, not relevant here. It will always be important to discuss the complexities and the depth of feeling on this concern. Both of us are strongly pro-life and pro-choice but we believe it will never be right to legislate away women's rights to control over their own bodies. This week and this issue of Komen and Planned Parenthood is the wrong place for the conversation on women's rights and what it means to be pro-life and pro-choice. Thank God sanity was restored at the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Thank you for the balanced viewpoint on the Komen incident. There are so many extreme voices that talk past each other and aren’t able to listen hard to the opposing viewpoint. To paraphrase Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird, we have to climb into someone else’s skin and walk around it for awhile before we understand their perspective. Jesus said the something similar in Matthew 5:41: “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”