Wednesday 1 February 2012

Ditch that Pink Ribbon.



And stop donating to the Susan Komen Foundation.
[The US'] most famous breast cancer charity pulled its grants for breast-cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood. Komen claims that their reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation from Congress, but as it's well-understood on both the left and the right that the investigation, headed by Rep. Cliff Stearns, is a nuisance investigation that will almost surely turn up nothing, this excuse sounds lame indeed. The likelier explanation is the one offered by Planned Parenthood, that Komen caved under relentless pressure from anti-choice activists who oppose Planned Parenthood for offering abortions as well as low-cost contraception and STD prevention and treatment. In addition, Komen has a history of not playing nice with other women's health organizations. Planned Parenthood has created an emergency fund to replace the Komen grants, to keep the breast-cancer screening service from being interrupted.
According to Jezebel, this is the reason this year's grant was cancelled.
[...]with the addition of a vocally anti-abortion ex-politician to the ranks of Susan G Komen For the Cure.

Karen Handel, who was endorsed by Sarah Palin during her unsuccessful bid for governor of Georgia in 2010, has been the Foundation's Senior Vice President for Public Policy since April 2011. During her gubernatorial candidacy, she ran on an anti-choice platform, vowing that if elected, she'd defund Planned Parenthood. Handel wrote on her campaign blog [...] "since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood."

She even promised to eliminate funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings provided by the organization.
The NFB has produced a feature documentary called 'Pink Ribbons, Inc.' that reveals how the reality of women living, surviving or dying of breast cancer has been appropriated by large companies using the marketing appeal of a "dream cause". They profit the most from the "Pink Ribbon" branding.

Instead of demanding better research into the environmental factors that increase the risk of developing breast cancer, women's energies and attention are diverted towards feel-good events.

'Pink Ribbons Inc' will be released across Canada on February 3rd.

2 comments:

Alison said...

Decent blurb on Pink Ribbons,Inc was on front page of Google News this morning :

Documentary dissects breast cancer fundraising campaigns

JJ said...

It has never been more obvious to me that they hate us so much, they want us to die.
Want. Us. To. Die.

Signed,
a breast cancer survivor who at this moment feels two emotions: disgust and fear.

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