STOKING FIRE: Anti-Choicers Target Komen Foundation

Editor's Note: A correction was made to this article at 6:54 pm Tuesday, September 15th, to reflect a mistake in the fundraising totals achieved by Susan G. Komen.  The Foundation raised $60 million last year alone and has raised $450 million over the course of the 27 years since it was founded.

In the early 1980’s Dr. Joel Brind, an endocrinologist at New York’s Baruch College, began reporting a link between abortion and breast cancer. According to Brind, any interruption in the hormonal changes caused by pregnancy would increase a woman’s breast cancer risk exponentially.

In the nearly 30 years since Brind’s so-called discovery, a bevy of international researchers have refuted his claim. The National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, for one, convened a workshop involving more than 100 of the world’s leading pregnancy experts in 2003. “Having an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman’s subsequent risk of developing breast cancer,” they concluded.

Sadly, this well-publicized finding—corroborated by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Cancer Society, and the American Medical Association--has failed to quiet Brind and his anti-choice followers. Evidence notwithstanding, Brind’s cancer claim is consistently repeated on anti-abortion websites and in printed materials.

But apparently, preaching to their own hasn’t gotten the antis adequate play, so they are now targeting Susan G. Komen (SGK) for the Cure, a group that bills itself as “the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists.”

SGK is indeed huge.  Last year alone it raised $60 million, and in the 27 years since its founding has raised more than $450 million for research into the causes and treatments of breast cancer, a disease that hits more than 190,000 women and nearly 2000 men a year. What’s more, the group provides easy-to-read data on treatment options for patients and their loved ones; resources for those looking to engage in activism or advocacy are also available.

While you probably think this sounds pretty benign, Catholic diocese across the U.S. and organizations like STOPP International, an affiliate of the American Life League, disagree and have dubbed Komen a menace to women. They’ve also launched a boycott of SGK’s Race for the Cure.

The naysayers have two objections.  Want to stop breast cancer? they ask. Then advise women to begin reproducing when they are young and warn them about the abortion/breast cancer connection. Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, a frequent speaker at National Right to Life Committee events, goes so far as to call full-term pregnancy  “protective,” as if women who give birth are somehow exempt from the disease.

Not surprisingly, this contention has gained little traction, even among right-wingers, so the anti-Komen posse has trucked out a reliable anti-abortion bugaboo, Planned Parenthood. Since its founding, Komen has provided grants to outside agencies, including--you guessed it—the reproductive health giant. According to John Hammarley, Senior Media Advisor to SGK, “Komen reaches out to the research community as well as those providing education, treatment, and screening for women, all in the name of trying to find cures for breast cancer and treating it as best we can in the meantime.  Komen affiliates invest hundreds of millions of dollars every year in programs in their communities that are needed by women and men touched by this disease.”

About 20 of the 125 state Komen affiliates provide grants to local Planned Parenthood clinics. The money, Hammarley  adds--approximately $800,000 in 2008—is used exclusively for breast cancer screening and educational programming, from information on how to do breast self exams to nutrition. Not a dime, Komen staff assures donors, pays for the provision of abortion or other reproductive health services. Instead the funds are used to provide diagnostic evaluations for uninsured and under-insured women who have no other access to professional breast exams.

This assurance does little to assuage Dr. Lanfranchi. “If aborting a pregnancy increases the risk of cancer and Planned Parenthood is the nation’s number one abortion provider, Komen is contributing to increasing the amount of breast cancer,” she rails. Similarly, Jim Sedlak of STOPP International carps that Planned Parenthood is  “an organization that exploits women, corrupts youth, and increases the likelihood of breast cancer by promoting contraception and abortion.” 

The illogic is staggering, not unlike the fear-mongering put forward by those who see healthcare reform as a Yellow Brick Road to socialism. 

Still, there is good news to report.  Although it’s far too soon to predict the upshot of the federal healthcare battle, by all accounts the anti-Komen campaign has fallen flat, doing little to hamper the group’s ongoing efforts.  At the same time, Koman staff have had to respond to anti-choice criticism and recently hired two Catholic ethicists to rebut Diocesan efforts to stop the faithful from supporting SKG. “The good that Komen does and the harm that would come to many women if Komen ceased to exist or ceased to be funded would seem to be a sufficiently proportionate reason” for Christian support, the commentators wrote.

There’s obviously a lot at stake.  Komen relies on corporate support for much of its research and programming; 24 companies currently donate $1 million and another 70 donate $100,000 to SGK each year.  Clearly, should a large-scale boycott catch fire, it will have devastating consequences for Komen’s work with patients, their families, and those interested in cancer research.

Despite the  threat, SGK’s Hammarley dismisses the opposition. “Our friends and supporters have been our strength throughout Komen’s history,” he says. “They have been stalwart in their support. Those opposed to Komen’s involvement with Planned Parenthood-sponsored programs have not impacted that support. Sponsors and affiliates have been threatened with boycotts, but thankfully we haven’t seen sponsors retreat.”

Let’s champion their resolve.