The death of distinction is the end of reason.
by John Hayward
02/03/2012
After the Susan G. Komen Foundation announced changes to its grant criteria that would jeopardize its funding of Planned Parenthood, full-on hysteria erupted among the Left. Nothing less than an organized effort to destroy the Komen Foundation was hastily organized. Not a word of appreciation for the billions of dollars Komen has directed to the fight against breast cancer was spoken. Their continued funding of Planned Parenthood was, quite simply, compulsory and not open to review, even though their stated reason for re-considering their funding pertained to ongoing Congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood.
This exact same ideological battle was fought during the last “government shutdown” crisis. The Democrat Party declared itself willing to shut down the entire federal government to protect compulsory taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. The conscience and “choices” of individual taxpayers were completely irrelevant, as were the actual activities of Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood funding was the sole impediment to a budget deal, in the penultimate hours of the shutdown crisis. Here are some quotes from an April 18, 2011 ABC News report:
"It's an outrage to shut down the government over an extreme proposal that would deny millions of women Pap tests, breast cancer screenings and birth control," said Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards.
Richards said the company's 800 clinics serve an estimated 3 million low-income women every year.
Democrats say Republicans are on an extremist crusade to put a "bulls eye on women in America" and undermine essential preventive health care services for millions of low-income women that rely on Title X-funded clinics every day.
"We are not – we are not! – bending on women's health," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today.
"This has no impact on the budget. It has no impact on the deficit or the debt," said Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski. "Where we will not go is eliminating the health care for women. Make no mistake, this entire debate has involved throwing women and children under the bus."
Mikulski and 40 fellow Senate Democrats have vowed to filibuster any budget deal that includes cuts to Title X or prohibits funds to Planned Parenthood.
Remember, the Democrat Party was ready to cut off military payroll checks to protect that compulsory Planned Parenthood funding. Unique among private organizations in the United States, you have no choice but to fund Planned Parenthood. Private organizations that provide them with direct funding are not allowed to reconsider that decision, for any reason.
All of this is done in the name of Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screenings, even though it does not perform mammograms. If the Komen Foundation had pushed ahead with cutting all funds to Planned Parenthood, it would not have banked its savings or returned them to donors – it would have diverted the money to other women’s health organizations, including those that do perform mammograms. But they were not permitted to make this decision.
What we have here is the paramount example of a phenomenon common on the Left: parasitic morality. The health services Planned Parenthood performs with respect to breast cancer become an absolute moral imperative that shields all of its other activities, including abortion services that many people find deeply objectionable (to put it mildly.) If you question any aspect of PP’s activities, you want women to die. Many of PP’s most ardent defenders will use exactly those words.
Parasitic morality is an important building block of Big Government, which in turn is very nourishing for organizations like Planned Parenthood. We hear such formulations all the time. If you oppose a tax increase, you want poor people to die. If you demand government spending cuts, you must want to yank cops off the street, and doctors out of emergency rooms. Challenge Big Government in any way, and you are clearly a hateful enemy of whatever virtuous dependency group it chooses to hide behind.
There are many ways people and organizations concerned about breast cancer can battle it more effectively, and more in accordance with their own moral standards, without pouring money into the coffers of a massive abortion provider. Writing at Life News, Dr. Gerard Nadal has one such suggestion:
Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms, but only manual palpations. That’s substandard for low-income women, especially Black women, whose incidence of breast cancer is frightfully higher than any other demographic.
Beginning TODAY Komen needs to announce a new initiative for purchasing mammogram machines for urban centers with high density, low-income women populations. Then they need to invite corporate America to join in the effort. What does corporate America want to do, fund Planned Parenthood squeezing breasts, or mammograms for women who are effectively shut out of the system? It’s really that simple.
Komen is the largest breast cancer foundation in the world. They should stand for excellence in women’s health care, especially for the poorest and most breast cancer-affected women among us. A mammogram machine initiative does just that.
That sounds like a great idea. Why don’t we run it past some of the people shrieking that any cut to Planned Parenthood funding is a knife plunged into the breasts of women everywhere, and see what they think? We could easily screen their replies for moral parasites.
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To read another article by John Hayward, click here.
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