The Hawaii affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure has been deluged with phone calls — mostly critical — since its national leaders decided to stop making grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening.
But while the policy shift might dampen enthusiasm for Komen’s signature events such as the Race for the Cure, it will have no direct impact here because Komen doesn’t fund Planned Parenthood Hawaii.
Asked how many phone calls had come in, Komen Hawaii’s executive director, Shelia Callum, said Thursday, "We can’t count them — it’s numerous calls. But you expect that. It’s been leading the news."
"The response has been primarily negative," she said. "They hope that we continue the partnership with Planned Parenthood."
Callum emphasized that nothing has changed locally, despite the national rift between two organizations traditionally aligned in the campaign to promote women’s health.
"It doesn’t affect our relationship with Planned Parenthood of Hawaii," Callum said. "We still have a good relationship with them. They haven’t applied for a grant over the last several years, so it has really been a nonissue here in Hawaii."
Katie Polidoro, director of public affairs and government relations for Planned Parenthood Hawaii, said the organization was saddened by the national policy change.
"Obviously we’re disappointed," Polidoro said. "We’ve always seen Komen as a great partner of ours, and our missions are so similar. It’s hard to see politics get in the way of those missions, which is to provide every women access to health care and breast screening."
Planned Parenthood has received no money from Komen Hawaii since 2005, when it got a grant for about $15,000 for education, outreach and breast cancer screening. It has fielded teams in the Komen Race for the Cure events, and uses Komen’s educational tools, including hanger cards on how to do regular breast exams.
"We use their material in our health centers and outreach, and will continue to do that," Polidoro said.
Over the last fiscal year, more than 2,600 patients, mostly low-income women, received breast exams through Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, and that will continue, she said. The controversy prompted a spike in donations to the national Planned Parenthood, but that hasn’t shown up locally yet, according to Polidoro.
"My understanding is that a lot of folks have been donating to our national organization, and what our national organization has been doing is taking those funds and targeting them to those affiliates that are losing funding because of this," Polidoro said.
Komen says the decision to cut funding was made because Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress.
The group’s national CEO, Nancy Brinker, sister of the late Susan Komen, said Thursday that the decision has been "mischaracterized" as political, and was simply part of a strategic review to ensure that donations are used most effectively and that grantees adhere to "stringent" guidelines.
"These changes mean we will be able to do more to help women and advance the fight against breast cancer," she said in a video posted online. "We will never bow to political pressure. We will always stand firm in our goal to end breast cancer forever."
Callum said Komen Hawaii will concentrate on its mission. "We’re still focused on making sure that the women of Hawaii who are underinsured and uninsured get the services that they need," she said.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and 25 colleagues signed a letter to Brinker asking her to reconsider the policy, noting that 20 percent of women in the United States have visited a Planned Parenthood health center.
"Planned Parenthood is a trusted provider of health care for women and men," they wrote. "More than 90 percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood are primary and preventative including wellness exams and cancer screenings that save lives. … It would be tragic if any woman — let alone thousands of women — lost access to these potentially life-saving screenings because of a politically motivated attack."
U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono also urged Brinker to reconsider and launched an online petition. "It almost seems too outrageous to be true: Preventing women from accessing breast cancer screenings in an attempt to appease the political agenda of the anti-choice movement," Hirono wrote in an email to supporters.
"Komen blamed its indefensible decision on the fact that Planned Parenthood is ‘under Congressional investigation’ — an investigation you and I know has no merit and is motivated entirely by Republican leaders in Washington whose goal is to ‘investigate’ organizations like Planned Parenthood out of existence," Hirono wrote. "Regardless of where you stand on reproductive rights, I think you’ll agree that the fight against cancer should be about cancer — not politics, or any other issue."
