Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) on Wednesday blasted Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, for cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides more low-cost women’s health services than any organization in the country.
"A fine nonprofit that I have been associated with for years, I have run in the Susan G. Komen race for the cure, I have walked in the race for the cure, I have been the emcee at a number of events locally that they have held, so I have been a big booster of the Susan G. Komen organization, but not anymore," she said on the House floor.
Komen said they were halting their partnership with the women’s health center because of recently adopted criteria prohibiting grants to organizations under local, state, or federal investigation. Nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams performed by Planned Parenthood were supported by Komen grants.
"So what does this mean?" Speier continued. "Well, I guess it means that Susan G. Komen has decided to become a 501-c-4 because no longer did they want to be providing nonprofits, they want to become a political advocacy group."
Planned Parenthood is under currently under investigation in Congress, an investigation spearheaded by anti-abortion Republicans.
"Far be it for us to rely on the House of Representatives holding a hearing as being emblematic of justice because oftentimes it's a political sandbox," Speier said. "Now, this investigation is one that has been called on by Mr. Stearns who is the Subcommittee Chair of Energy and Commerce on Oversight. The hearing has never been held."
"So why would Susan G. Komen take the remarkable step of saying they are no longer going to fund Planned Parenthood? I suppose when we review NIH and bring them under some investigation that they will stop funding NIH to the tune of $1 million, or I suppose that when we have a pharmaceutical company that we bring to the hill to ask them questions about a particular activity that they will stop accepting sponsor money from that particular pharmaceutical company."
Watch video, uploaded by Speier's office, below:
