Komen Donations Jump 100% After Cutting Planned Parenthood

National | Steven Ertelt | Feb 2, 2012 | 8:16PM | Washington, DC

Donations to the Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity have jumped 100% following the announcement that it is ending its relationship with the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Nancy Brinker, the founder and CEO of the Komen Foundation, made the announcement today on a conference call with reporters telling them the organization is “singularly focused” on combating breast cancer, and that the politics of the decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood has been distracting from their mission.

“Our donations are up 100 percent in the past two days. With all of the emotion around these issues — which we understand, we get emotional too, we do this every single day of our lives,” Brinker said.

“We regret that these new policies have impacted some longstanding grantees, such as Planned Parenthood, but want to be absolutely clear that our grant-making decisions are not about politics,” Komen said in a statement Wednesday. “Throughout our 30 year history, our priority has always been and will continue to be the women we serve. As we move forward, we are working to ensure that there is no interruption or gaps in services for the women who need our support most in the fight against breast cancer.”

UPDATE: Komen has raised $1 million while Planned Parenthood has pulled in $500,000 since the decision.

The figures comes after Planned Parenthood indicated it has raised $400,000 since Komen for the Cure made its decision to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars from the abortion giant due to a change in grant-making policies.

The abortion business said late Wednesday that it received more than $400,000 from 6,000 donors in the 24 hours following the news that Komen had made the decision last month to end Planned Parenthood funding. Andrea Hagelgans, a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman, told AP the abortion business appreciated the support from its members.

“People respond powerfully when they see politics interfering with women’s health,” she said. “These donations will continue to help expand Planned Parenthood’s critical health care services nationwide, especially those affiliates impacted by the Komen cuts.” [related]

Looking at the controversy, Bethany Mandel of Commentary magazine responds.

“The left immediately went into spin mode, claiming the funds were used for breast screenings and without Komen’s grants, women’s health would be jeopardized. The funds, they claim, went only towards what they were granted to cover: breast screening and education. Remember the part about Planned Parenthood being under congressional investigation? In part, it’s due to charges over misappropriation of funds,” she explained.

“With the freeing up of funds from an organization who do next to nothing for breast health, the Komen Foundation will now be free to use these resources to bankroll organizations who provide wide-ranging breast services for women around the world. For those who are upset that Planned Parenthood will no longer have this grant opportunity, they are free to donate to Planned Parenthood directly (and they are). Given the fact that Planned Parenthood is actually a profitable business (netting $18.5 million last year), if women’s health is truly their top priority, it won’t suffer without Komen,” Mandel explained.