Shortly after an investigation earlier this year by Live Action revealing that Planned Parenthood does not, in fact, provide mammograms, Susan G. Komen for the Cure issued a statement [PDF] implicitly acknowledging as much, but still making it clear that Komen has no plans to discontinue the grants that a “limited number” of their local affiliates give to PP so it can play the middleman and refer women to some place that actually does them.
After reading Komen’s statement, I wondered: what if you contact Komen and ask them directly if Planned Parenthood provides mammograms—what do they say then?
So I filled out their contact form and asked them:
Here’s how Komen’s response begins:
You’ll notice, of course, that this form letter response didn’t actually answer my question. And so even though I knew what the answer would be, I did as I was advised, and then I responded to Komen:
Komen’s representative then replied by slightly modifying the form letter she had previously sent and removing any reference to Planned Parenthood.
Last week, I contacted Komen again from a different address and directly asked them, once again, if PP provides mammograms:
I had a hunch that I’d get much the same form letter as I did the first time I e-mailed them. And although it was a different employee who responded to my e-mail this time around, lo and behold:
Komen and Planned Parenthood: Thick As Thieves
Given the public relations black eye that Planned Parenthood has suffered these past few months, you might think that Komen would want to distance itself from PP.
But then you’d be wrong.
As Jill Stanek revealed last year, Eric Brinker — the son of Komen’s founder — is in a joint business venture with Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest.
And, of course, it’s been well known for years that Komen refuses to acknowledge even the mere possibility of a link between abortion and breast cancer.
All of these factors taken together give the lie to Komen’s claim that their relationship with PP is restricted to a “limited number” of local affiliates.
They’re not fooling anybody: Komen and Planned Parenthood are BFFs.
