Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the renowned breast cancer charity, faced an escalating backlash locally and around the country Thursday over its decision to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood.
Komen has been deluged with negative emails and Facebook postings, accusing it of knuckling under to pressure from anti-abortion groups.
The backlash began after The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Komen was halting grants that Planned Parenthood affiliates used for breast exams and related services. The grants totaled $680,000 last year.
Melissa Reed, the vice president of public policy with Planned Parenthood Health Systems in Winston-Salem, disagreed with Komen's decision.
"Politics should never get in the way of a woman's ability to access health care," Reed said in a statement. "In these tough economic times, more women than ever need access to essential health care services like lifesaving breast cancer screenings."
Reed's organization received a grant of $65,237 from Komen in 2009, she said.
Anne Eichhorn, Komen's executive director of its Triad chapter in Winston-Salem, said her chapter didn't have anything to do with the decision but will abide by it.
"We don't have any control of that national policy," she said.
That decision will not affect any women locally because Planned Parenthood Health Systems of Winston-Salem didn't apply for a grant for 2011-12, Eichhorn said.
The national Planned Parenthood organization has been heartened by an outpouring of support in response to the cutoff.
And in Washington, 26 U.S. senators — all Democrats except for independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont — signed a letter calling on Komen to reconsider its decision.
"It would be tragic if any woman — let alone thousands of women — lost access to these potentially lifesaving screenings because of a politically motivated attack," the senators wrote.
Komen's top leaders denied Planned Parenthood's assertion that the decision was driven by pressure from anti-abortion groups.
"We don't base our decisions on whether one side or the other will be pleased," said Komen's founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker.
Komen has said the decision stemmed from newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations under investigation — affecting Planned Parenthood because of an inquiry by a Republican congressman acting with encouragement from anti-abortion activists.
Brinker said there were additional factors, notably changes in the types of breast-health service providers it wanted to support.
A source with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen's headquarters in Dallas gave a different account, saying the grant-making criteria were adopted with the deliberate intention of targeting Planned Parenthood.
According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, a driving force behind the move was Karen Handel, who was hired by Komen last year as vice president for public policy after losing a campaign for governor in Georgia in which she stressed her anti-abortion views and frequently denounced Planned Parenthood.
Brinker, in an interview with MSNBC, said Handel didn't have a significant role in the policy change.
The source also said Mollie Williams, who had been Komen's director of community health programs, had resigned in protest over the grant cutoff.
Williams, in an email, said she could not comment on her departure for reasons of professional confidentiality, but she was clear about her views.
"I believe it would be a mistake for any organization to bow to political pressure and compromise its mission," she wrote.
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