I wasn’t awake more than two minutes before I heard the stunning reversal from Susan G. Komen for the Cure. A few days ago Susan G. Komen changed their grant rules effectively cutting off Planned Parenthood from the funding they’d received through Komen. Many people (including me) felt this was a political move. Conservatives, many of whom oppose abortion as a matter of conscience on moral or religious grounds, having been fighting hard to cut off Planned Parenthood‘s cash!
Today Susan G. Komen for the Cure had a change of heart.
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. The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. 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.
If you watched Susan G. Komen founder and Chief Executive Officer Nancy G. Brinker on TV yesterday there’s only one conclusion to be reached. She was lying yesterday or lying today. The statements issued Thursday and Friday are mutually exclusive.
Here’s the deal–no matter why the funds were cut off Komen is responding today to public pressure exerted through social media!
I wrote about this before in relation to legislation the MPAA and RIAA were steamrolling through Congress. As soon as the public spoke, or more succinctly yelled, the bill died a quick death!
This realization has led many countries to clamp down in the Internet. Sometimes it’s a temporary lid. In China and North Korea (among others) the control is a long lasting death grip.
Jon Stewart said poor people have shitty lobbyists! Who cares? The Internet has empowered the citizenry. All the rules have changed.