This is my last post on the current culture of death drama playing out around us, but I mentioned this in an earlier post and feel I ought to address some of the less obvious elements...
I'm not going to dwell on the obvious, my religious views and how they influence my view of the situation. Rather, I want to focus on a few elements that should concern everyone that has reasonable faculties for intellectual reason and logic.
1. The reason Susan G. Komen (SGK) withdrew funding from Planned Parenthood (PP) was because PP is under Federal investigation and their charter forbid them from providing funds to organizations under investigation. That is a completely logical and reasonable policy to have and to follow without condition. Let's take another recent news story just to see the hypocrisy that occurred in the race to condemn SGK: The tragic sex abuse scandal at Penn State University.
How's that relate? Well, look at the outrage, criticism and forced resignations/firings of Joe Paterno and University officials. Note, the gravest of their offenses was that they had reason to believe that Jerry Sandusky was engaged in improper behavior but they continued to contribute, support, condone, and/or cooperate with him giving him the ongoing opportunity to break the law. What showed them there was a problem? A report of impropriety and charges filed and investigated. There was the smoke of a report and the smoke of an investigation and not severing all ties with Sandusky in that case made them villains.
What's happening with Planned Parenthood? There are reports that they are violating Federal law and MULTIPLE investigations underway. Breaking the law is breaking the law. We hold people and organizations accountable for supporting, condoning or associating with suspected criminals. But when SGK has a charter that requires them to show that sort of integrity that would protect them from future backlash if an organization under investigation does turn out to be guilty, they are skewered.
That's a problem. We're a bunch of hypocrits. As a society we have no moral integrity and the contrast of these two situations illustrates the problem far too well.
2. SGK exists for one purpose and one purpose only: To reduce and/or eradicate cases of breast cancer, to prevent, treat and find cures for a disease that account for far too many early deaths. That being their mission, funding PP has always puzzled me. PP is the number one prescriber of birth control pills in the world. Their are scientfical causal links between birth control pills and breast cancer, WHO clearly presents scientific evidence to this effect, CDC research is questionable and appears to be the result of political winds not true science. And an honest understanding of what truly increases the risk of breast cancer (higher levels of estrogen) it's impossible to not recognize that pills that work by increasing estrogen content could not help but contribute to increased risk of contracting breast cancer. So, why would SGK support PP in the first place? It seems that the mission of SGK and an association and funding of an organization that puts more women at increased risk for birth control than any other organization related to women's health is contrary to their mission.
3. Breast cancer, abortion, birth control, women's reproductive "freedom". While the last three may be related matter, breast cancer is a disease separate and distinct from some (inaccurately termed) freedom. But, PP and its supporters are forcing SGK to make their separate, distinct, unrelated issue a shared issue. We should be outraged that an organization under federal investigation for misappropriation of our tax dollars would drag an organization that had truly good intentions and was doing something ethical into their cause.
Of course, I have never support Planned Parenthood, this doesn't change my stance regarding PP at all. SGK, I was neutral on. I didn't like that they helped fund parts of PP's operation, even though their support was for a good purpose and only supported breast cancer screenings, etc... It made me hesitant to support breast cancer research and treatment through SGK. When they severed ties with PP they went from neutral to a charity I would consider funding. Caving to the pressure, going back on their ethics and conscience, choosing to re-engage with an institution that is indisputably under investigation and suspected of violating Federal law? It's not a matter of my Pro-Life beliefs, it's the simple matter that they clearly have no integrity or moral conscience and are willing to put publicity ahead of doing the right thing and a charity that puts publicity over mission, publicity over integrity, publicity over moral responsibility, that is not a charity to be trusted with charitable contributions.
