Keep The Focus On Women And Cancer

This is tame, and articulate, compared to the not-so-subtle "Help us run over poor women on our way to the bank" tagline that a hacker inserted into the Komen homepage around the same time.

 

And those are only two of the countless angry online protests, tweets, blog items, Facebook posts and other reactions that exploded over Komen's since-reversed decision to stop supporting mammograms at Planned Parenthood.

 

Komen always remained committed to funding existing grants, but its leaders decided last fall that Planned Parenthood was ineligible to apply for future funding, because the organization is under investigation in Florida for using government funds to perform abortions.

 

When that decision became public on Tuesday, an all-out firestorm erupted.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Planned Parenthood supporters signed online petitions condemning Komen and demanding a reversal of policy. About two dozen senators, among them New York's Kirsten Gillibrand, publicly opposed Komen's decision. Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $250,000 in personal funds to match donations to Planned Parenthood, dollar for dollar. Even before Bloomberg stepped in, Planned Parenthood had already raised nearly $700,000 in the first 48 hours after the story broke -- about equivalent to the funds that Komen had taken away.

 

The controversy goes to the heart of the heated "right to choose" vs. "right to life" debate -- with access to potentially lifesaving health services for lower-income women stuck right in the middle. Critics considered Komen's decision politically motivated since its senior vice president of public policy, Karen Handel, is an avowed pro-life conservative.

 

And ultimately, Komen backed down. On Friday its founder, Nancy Brinker, issued a statement saying that the organization has reconsidered its decision and restored Planned Parenthood's eligibility for future grants. She promised that Komen will amend its funding criteria "to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political." Brinker called this "right and fair" and reiterated that "that politics has no place" in Komen's grant process.

 

It's fitting that the melee took place this past week. Feb. 4 is World Cancer Day, a day designed to bring worldwide awareness and support to individuals and organizations fighting cancer. The events of last week -- controversy and all -- show how passionately the country can unite to address women's health issues.

 

What we have now is immense momentum. But as both Komen and Planned Parenthood said on Friday, we have to move past the political skirmish and focus again on the overall issue of battling breast cancer.

 

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States, after non-melanoma skin cancer.

 

According to the National Cancer Institute, about 128 out of every 100,000 women nationwide will develop breast cancer, but the rates are higher on Long Island. In Nassau County, that figure is about 139 out of 100,000. In Suffolk, it's 143. Doctors say that early detection is one of the most important factors to increase survival.