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.
It would be great if Komen continued grants to Planned Parenthood, but it's now a moot point. Everybody's now on notice that Planned Parenthood provides these services and that you can give directly to Planned Parenthood and avoid paying the Komen overhead. That bed will not be unshat.
ReplyDeleteRegarding local affiliates, the local affiliates were the bodies responsible for approving the Planned Parenthood in the first place. These people have been on the front line fighting the battles for years, and in my humble opinion, it was the stink that the local affiliates raised that was primarily responsible for national Komen beating a hasty retreat. If right-wingers make any moves to turn the local affiliates into something other than what they already are, these people will raise the alarm again, and that should serve to pull the plug on Komen. Komen isn't like a school board at all. If you want a school, you have to have a school board. To fight breast cancer, you don't have to have Komen.
Even though I should have, being a local, I didn't know until this all blew up that Komen's natl HQ is in Dallas. Never a good sign, in and of itself.
ReplyDeleteTaking it local, to the state's rights crowds, is like the Mafia taking to the mattresses.
ReplyDeleteThe fight's on!
I will never buy anything with Komen-sponsored pink.
And, I'm not one of those hetro-guy's who's afraid of wearing pink.
I look great in pink!
Komon, or goin'...