When the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation announced earlier this week that the prominent breast cancer charity would cut funding to Planned Parenthood, the backlash spread far and wide across the Internet, resulting in a public relations nightmare and a clever hack on the organization’s website.
Now the Komen foundation has changed its tune—somewhat.
President Nancy Brinker apologized in a public statement Friday.
“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives. … We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
“Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.”
—Nancy Brinker
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s back to business as normal. Komen said that it would “continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood.” But as blogger Angus Johnston has already pointed out, the organization never intended to go back on previous commitments. While Komen will preserve Planned Parenthood’s “eligibility to apply for future grants,” that still doesn’t mean that the grants will approved.
Even still, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards praised the move, and it caps a powerful string of events for the organization. Planned Parenthood has seen a surge in public awareness and donations, from social media site Reddit to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Photo by Fifth World Art