Right-Wing Politics Hurt Komen Foundation Funding

Since its inception in 1982, the foundation called Susan G. Komen (formerly known as Susan G. Komen for the Cure) has raised funds through donations, corporate sponsorships, walks & races, and other activities to fund finding a cure for breast cancer. They fund both research and organizations dedicated to diagnosing and preventing that terrible disease. They had established a reputation envied by many other charitable organizations, and they were growing.

But then they decided to dip their toe into right-wing politics, and announced that as of January 2012 they would no longer provide funding for Planned Parenthood. Evidently this was because the organization leaders disapproved of Planned Parenthood's involvement in helping some women to get an abortion. This had nothing to do with breast cancer, and Planned Parenthood performed many other services (abortion being only a tiny percentage of their services). In fact, Planned Parenthood offered the only resource for many women in receiving diagnosis for breast cancer.

This ridiculous decision by Komen was met with a firestorm of disapproval in the general public. And after only a short time, Komen reversed its decision and said Planned Parenthood would be considered for donations in the future. The hope was that this reversal of policy would prevent a drop in revenue for the foundation. But those revenues dropped significantly anyway -- maybe not as much as if the decision had not been reversed, but still a significant drop nonetheless. The charts below show the drop in revenue report by Komen from 2012 to 2013.