Susan G. Komen Foundation Defunds Planned Parenthood

Hmm, this is interesting. You would think that a women’s health non-profit organization that oozes all things pink and feminist would be in favor of something like Planned Parenthood. You know, the women’s health mecca (essentially).

Apparently, the Susan G. Komen Foundation announced this week that it won’t hold its annual fundraising races in seven major cities in 2012, including Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C., although races will continue in other cities next year.

The organization, which has raised almost $2 billion for breast cancer research and awareness in its 30-year existence told the New York Daily News that participation in the race has dropped 37 percent in the past four years.

The Komen race is a three-day, 60-mile race and is unlike the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in the sense that the latter does not carry a fundraising requirement. Komen mandates that its walkers raise $2,300 in order to participate.

In a tough economy, that may be difficult for supporters to do. To me, this seems as if it’s a bit of a cop out. If someone wants to raise that money and participate, they will. No one is forcing anyone to donate over two thousand dollars in order to walk. People walk because they choose to walk, and donations will follow.

The decision is in no doubt due to the recent controversy the organization has been going through. Last year, former CEO Nancy Brinker, a powerful Republican party supporter, defunded Planned Parenthood breast cancer screenings, which sparked a huge backlash that forced her to both reverse her decision and step down.

Recently, the controversy has been reignited with the news that last year, the same year Brinker presided over the original Komen debacle, she got a 64 percent raise from $417,000 to $684,717.

Nice one.

Photo Credit: Getty Images