...neutrality is betrayal.
Susan G. Komen's explanation for walking-back its withdrawal from funding Planned Parenthood is strange. Komen explains:
"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."
It appears that Komen originally decided to defund Planned Parenthood because of the scandals (a) the counseling of pimps who want cheap health services for underaged prostitutes or (b) aiding and abetting middle-aged men in the statutory rape and impregnation of 13 year olds.
Komen's walk back is bizarre. Komen is not a government agency charged with making determinations beyond a reasonable doubt. It's a fiduciary charged with using common sense and making sure that the money that people donate doesn't get used to support (a) things other than breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and awareness or (b) idiots who counsel pimps and abused children on how to most effectively cover up crimes done by or to them.
That was my common sense, and I see that other great minds reached the same conclusion. Here is James Taranto from the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web:
In truth, Komen was under no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood. Its decision not to do so was not punitive and did not even appear to be. The episode is reminiscent of George Orwell far more than Joe McCarthy. Komen's actual aim was to extricate itself from the divisive national battle over abortion by severing its connection with a leading combatant.
The conservative Media Research Center notes that CNN "aired a pretty one-sided piece including statements from Planned Parenthood's president Cecile Richards, evidence supporting her claims of right-wing 'bullying,' and even vitriolic Facebook posts decrying the de-funding." No supporter of Komen's position or critic of Planned Parenthood was included. Even more appalling than that lack of balance, though, was CNN's echoing the charge of "right-wing 'bullying,' " while the network was participating in Planned Parenthood's effort to bully Komen.
The Ministry of Information--sorry, the New York Times--editorializes:
With its roster of corporate sponsors and the pink ribbons that lend a halo to almost any kind of product you can think of, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has a longstanding reputation as a staunch protector of women's health. That reputation suffered a grievous, perhaps mortal, wound this week from the news that Komen, the world's largest breast cancer organization, decided to betray that mission. It threw itself into the middle of one of America's nastiest political battles, on the side of hard-right forces working to demonize Planned Parenthood and undermine women's health and freedom.
The truth is that Komen blundered into a political battle by supporting Planned Parenthood in the first place and was attempting to back out of it quietly.
The Times's view exemplifies feminism's gradual transformation into a totalitarian ideology. Totalitarianism politicizes everything, so that neutrality is betrayal--in this case, neutrality on abortion is portrayed as opposition to "women's health." As we wrote last year, this is also why purportedly pro-choice feminists can hate Sarah Palin and her daughter for choosing not to abort their children.
Komen would have been better off approaching the matter straightforwardly, by announcing that it wished to opt out of the abortion debate and would not support groups that take a position on either side of the issue, including Planned Parenthood. This would not have averted the smear campaign that followed, for Planned Parenthood and its supporters have internalized the notion that abortion is health, and are determined that everyone else internalize it too. But an honest position would have been easier to defend. No one would have been able to dent Komen's integrity.
Exactly. Any sane charitable group would be running for the doors with their coat in hand if there had been videos of the group they were supporting using their money to advise pimps on how to get discount abortions for their underage hookers.
But the rules of common sense don't apply to liberal sacred cows.
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