KOMEN: SURRENDERING OR JUST GOING LOCAL?

Katha Pollitt is skeptical about the Komen climbdown -- not just the bit about merely keeping Planned Parenthood eligible for future grants (which suggests that the grant applications may not be approved), but also this:

And what about the bit about allowing affiliates "to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities?" Does that mean affiliates will be free to refuse to support PP, setting the stage for state and local anti-choice takeover efforts?

Yeah, that sounds very suspicious. It would suggest that the Komen thinking is: OK, shock and awe didn't work, so now we're going fight a land war. Or, to put it another way, the effort to deprive Planned Parenthood of Komen funds is going to be like the larger fight to ban abortion: if it's politically infeasible to do it nationwide, it'll be done in red states and localities, bit by bit. And we know how successful that effort has been.

Pollitt goes on to write:

Nonetheless, this is a real win for pro-choicers. We hear so much anti-choice propaganda, we may not always remember that, actually, Planned Parenthood is not sketchy and controversial out there in mainstream America. It is beloved. Beloved.

But is it sufficiently beloved to withstand a right-wing war on multiple fronts? Let's hope so.