House Republican leaders cancelled a vote Tuesday on H.R. 2722, the Breast Cancer Awareness Commemorative Coin Act, legislation that would have provided the Susan G. Komen Foundation – a major donor to Planned Parenthood – with $4,750,000 in taxpayer funding.
The cancellation of the vote comes in the wake of an investigative video released Tuesday morning by pro-life group Center for Medical Progress which depicted Planned Parenthood’s chief medical officer speaking about how to abort a baby intact in order to be able to harvest its body parts for sale. Funding to the breast cancer group would likely have benefited Planned Parenthood, leading Heritage Action to object to a vote on it.
The Komen Foundation made headlines in 2012 when its then-director Karen Handel halted the organization’s funding for breast screening grants to Planned Parenthood because the organization does not perform mammograms, but instead refer patients to those who do perform them, all the while collecting a fee for the referral.
Backlash from pro-abortion activists led Komen CEO Nancy Brinker to restore funding to Planned Parenthood before she stepped down from her position.
In a press release, Heritage Action observed that commemorative coins serve as a “creative workaround that allows funds to flow to those prized pet projects.”
“Commemorative coins are problematic but the recipients are usually sympathetic or wholesome,” Heritage Action added. “But as two-time breast-cancer survivor Eve Sanchez Silver told the National Catholic Register last fall, “Here was a breast-health organization [Susan G. Komen] — a very life-affirming organization, from my perspective — funding an organization that essentially kills people. I couldn’t understand why they thought that was okay.”
Last year, the L.A. Times reported on the Komen Foundation:
[W]hile the foundation depicted itself as devoted chiefly to research for a breast cancer cure, it spent only about 20% of its donations on research; the biggest expenditure category was public education, at more than 50%. Critics questioned whether ‘education’ really should be such a heavy priority in a field where research issues remain important.
Matt Fuller at Roll Call reports that a Republican leadership aide said, “We are working to ensure that charitable organizations which receive funding from this legislation are 100 percent focused on diagnosing, treating, and curing breast cancer.”
According to the Huffington Post, however, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) said, “Funding for breast cancer research is incredibly important to millions of American families. I remain hopeful that this bill will pass, and I’m working right now to make sure that happens.”
In response to the House cancelling the vote, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said, “The House Republican leadership acted responsibly by pulling this measure, which would likely have funneled more money to Planned Parenthood, an organization that is the focus of yet another horrific scandal.”
“It is past time for the federal government to stop funding Planned Parenthood, an organization that has provided cover for sex traffickers, engaged in gender targeting, and is known for dirty, bloody clinics,” Perkins continued. “An explosive report released today shows Planned Parenthood is involved in fetus farming and is possibly violating the partial birth abortion ban.”
Perkins called on Congress to investigate these charges to ensure that unborn babies are not being aborted to harvest their organs and body parts.
“This bill’s goals are well-intended, but the results will only fund the nation’s largest provider of abortions,” he said. “There are better ways to fund cancer research that don’t involve Planned Parenthood.”
In a statement to Breitbart News on Tuesday, co-chairman of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) referred to Planned Parenthood as “Child Abuse Incorporated,” and vowed that its actions “in selling baby body parts demands a response from Congress, and we will provide one.”
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