The Susan G. Komen Foundation announced that is has pulled all funding from Planned Parenthood due to a stipulation that the charity cannot grant funds to organizations undergoing investigations by local, state or federal authorities.
CNA/EWTN is reporting that the ongoing federal investigation of Planned Parenthood is what cost it more than a half-million dollars a year in funding from Komen. A statement issued last evening by Komen referenced its new grant-making criteria and pledged to allow no gaps in service to women as a result of the move.
“While it is regrettable when changes in priorities and policies affect any of our grantees, such as a long-standing partner like Planned Parenthood, we must continue to evolve to best meet the needs of the women we serve and most fully advance our mission,” the statement said.
The federal investigation into the nation’s largest abortion provider began last year after the pro-life legal group, Americans United for Life, issued a report indicating financial irregularities within the Planned Parenthood organization as well as their involvement in assisting people involved in sex-trafficking and prostitution. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) is heading the investigation on Capital Hill, which is ongoing.
Komen has been under fire for years for its liaison with the nation’s largest abortion provider, which is why Planned Parenthood is now claiming the move to cut off their funding was politically motivated.
“It’s hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women’s lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying. It’s really hurtful,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America told the Associated Press.
Planned Parenthood received roughly $680,000 in grants from Komen last year and $580,000 the year before.
Pro-life groups are praising the move. The Alliance Defense Fund praised Komen “for seeing the contradiction between its lifesaving work and its relationship with an abortionist that has ended millions of lives.”
“The continued, collective efforts of the pro-life movement have paid off,” said Bradley Mattes, Executive Director of the Life Issues Institute to LifeSiteNews. “Our work to educate Komen donors to the reality that the organization has financially supported the nation’s largest chain of abortion mills has caused Komen to halt the financial hemorrhaging. Evidently, Komen had to choose between political ideology and financial viability. They made a good choice.”
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