In early 2012, after the breast cancer charity Komen for the Cure announced it would end its relationship with Planned Parenthood, the group quickly saw a 100 percent spike in fundraising. But alas, defenders of the nation's largest abortion provider and their accomplices in the liberal media, chief among them MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, struck back with a vengeance and the group eventually reversed itself under intense pressure from the Left. Ever since the epic Komen cave, however, the organization has seen faltering fundraising.
"Komen can't outrun Planned Parenthood controversy as race enrollment drops," the New York Daily News reported last September. Fast forward to today as the Lena Sun reported in the June 5 Washington Post that Komen is dropping "its signature 3-Day walk in Washington and six other cities next year, slashing the number of the fundraising events by half, as participation continues to drop more than a year after a funding controversy involving Planned Parenthood." By contrast, however:
next year’s Avon Walk for Breast Cancer will take place in the same eight cities as the group’s 2013 events — Houston, Washington, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Charlotte and Santa Barbara, Calif., an Avon spokeswoman said.
“Our participation levels are on par with last year,” she said. Avon’s walk in Washington, which took place this past May, raised $4.5 million, compared to $5 million in 2012.
Komen’s annual Race for the Cure in Washington took place a week later. It had fewer participants than in previous years — about 21,000 people, down from 27,000 last year and nearly 40,000 in 2011. The race raised $5 million in 2011, $2 million last year and about $1.5 million this year, although this year’s tally is not final.
The dip in fundraising forced Komen to tap its reserves last year to fund research and other grants, angering some affiliates, according to a source familiar with fundraising.
The Komen controversy was a huge rallying cry for the Left last year, particularly as it was woven into the bogus "war on women" meme.
The liberal media portrayed the average American woman as incensed that the Komen organization was "playing politics" by pulling money from Planned Parenthood. More than a year later, however, it's pretty obvious that Komen has been hurt more by reversing itself than it would have been had it stuck to its guns.
That's the price Komen pays for caving in to the demands of the liberal media rather than digging in and standing by its decision on principle.
