Many people are familiar with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, particularly because so many people have participated in is “Race for the Cure”, which helps to fund the foundation’s mission of providing funds for breast cancer screenings, treatment and research.

Obviously, this is a great and noble mission and people had no problem supporting them in their endeavors.

However, in recent days, the leadership of this organization decided to let their personal politics trump their mission.  In a move right out of the hard, right-wing Republican playbook, the organization decided to cease contributions to Planned Parenthood.  The Komen Foundation had been providing about $700,000 annually for breast cancer screenings for low-income women, a vital service for that population.

The foundation used the excuse that because Planned Parenthood was “under investigation”, that made the organization a liability to the Komen Foundation’s mission.  However, Planned Parenthood has been a target of Congressional Republicans for some time, now.  Additionally, upon closer inspection, this just doesn’t hold water.  First of all, look at some of the figures involved. The founder of the organization, Nancy Goodman Brinker, is a big GOP donor and a former ambassador to President George W. Bush.  Karen Handel, named Senior Vice President for Komen in April 2011 (and is a federal lobbyist for the foundation), ran as a Republican for the Georgia governorship.  She is a longtime critic of Planned Parenthood and, when running in Georgia, vowed to defund Planned Parenthood.

The second reason is that, if they were enforcing their own rule, they would have announced that they pulled their $7.5 million funding of research at Penn State University which is under federal investigation in the wake of the child molestation scandal revolving around former coach Jerry Sandusky, as well as allegations that officials overlooked these alleged crimes.  The Komen Foundation seemed unconcerned with revoking their funding there.

Today, we now see that, after a huge public backlash, the Komen Foundation reversed it’s policy.  This was after the news media and the internet was abuzz with criticism, condemnation and activism in regards to this decision.  Yesterday, alone, roughly $650,000 in donations to Planned Parenthood came rolling in.  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged a personal donation of $250,000.  Additionally, in the last several days, a number of Komen board members either resigned or threatened to resign over this decision.

It appears that the Komen Foundation did not expect this backlash and found it could not dig in its heels in the face of such great public opposition.  In a public statement, Komen apologized “to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.” It also offered the following:

“Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.”

Now, this does not mean that they won’t attempt to pull funding at some later date but, for today, Planned Parenthood and its supporters can claim a victory.  The Komen Foundation played a dangerous political game that threatened the very credibility of the organization’s mission — to help prevent, fight and eradicate breast cancer.  Let’s hope that they have learned their lesson and will re-focus on saving lives versus pandering to a political party.