Just three days after Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced it would cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, CEO Nancy Brinker said Friday the decision had been reversed.
Komen, one of the nation’s leading breast cancer organizations, donates about $700,000 to Planned Parenthood annually.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who represents Evanston, co-signed the letter with U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) and 21 other representatives urging the breast cancer advocacy organization to reconsider its decision Thursday.
“Today, I am joining Rep. Honda and fellow colleagues in signing a letter to Founder and CEO Nancy Brinker of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation expressing my deep concern and disappointment by the decision to not renew grant funding for breast cancer prevention at Planned Parenthood health centers,” Schakowsky wrote on her Facebook page. “Breast cancer prevention should not be a political issue.”
Komen’s decision to cut off Planned Parenthood funding, which the organization uses to provide breast cancer screening and education to low-income women at its clinics, was met with criticism by several politicians and millions of Americans nationwide.
Komen leaders had announced Tuesday new criteria for providing grants that would exclude organizations under investigation by local, state and federal authorities. The revamped standards would have cut off funds to Planned Parenthood, which is currently under investigation for funding abortions with federal grants by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives.
Though Komen leaders insisted the decision was not politically motivated, critics viewed it as a move to distance their organization from the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood after being pressured by anti-abortion activists.
Brinker initially defended Komen’s defunding of Planned Parenthood during an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday.
“It’s a mischaracterization, of certainly, of our goals, our mission and everything that we do,” Brinker said. “In fact, we haven’t defunded Planned Parenthood. We still have three grants that we’ve committed to, at least for another year, through the end of the grant cycle.”
But in a statement released Friday, Brinker apologized for the decision and addressed the controversy surrounding it.
“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,” Brinker wrote. “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.”
Following the reversal, Schakowsky said she was happy to hear Komen’s decision.
“I am very pleased that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has reversed its ill advised decision and will remain true to the mission of helping all women with life-saving preventative care,” she said in an email to The Daily. “I am especially gratified to see that the speedy and overwhelming support for women’s health was successful in effecting this turnaround.”
