Regarding the following:

Wasn't that nice, after all these years, for the Komen Foundation to meet with pro-lifers to learn about the Abortion-Breast Cancer Link?

Since their objective in life is to prevent women from developing breast cancer, then why didn't they attempt to learn more about the link years ago? God only knows how many women have died because of their stubbornness and ties to Planned Parenthood.

Frank Joseph MD

---

Komen Officials Meet Pro-Life Leaders on Abortion-Breast Cancer Link

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 6, 2006

Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) -- The Susan G. Komen Foundation has come under fire from pro-life advocates for making donations to Planned Parenthood and refusing to tell women about the abortion-breast cancer link. Hoping to change that, two leading pro-life advocates and members of a Right to Life group met with SGK officials to tell them of their concerns.

Former Komen medical research analyst and Hispanic outreach director Eve Sanchez Silver and Dr. Joel Brind, a professor at New York's Baruch College met with the SGK officials. The meeting also included board members of Colorado Right to Life and came just one day before Silver addressed the group's annual banquet.

Silver, who resigned from Komen after learning that their affiliates had made significant contributions to Planned Parenthood, discussed the meeting in a statement LifeNews.com received. "SGK officials did not appear to have knowledge of simple breast facts," Silver said.

Silver explained that the breast is an organ that is not mature at birth and SGK officials appeared to be surprised to learn that the breast does not become fully mature until after 32 weeks of pregnancy. As a result of that state of development, interruption of pregnancy via an abortion before 32 weeks leaves breast cells exposed to estrogen, which is highly carcinogenic.

She indicated the Komen representatives also appeared to be "more concerned about assisting women after they had contracted breast cancer, than informing them to avoid breast cancer risk by avoiding abortions and having [an] early, full term pregnancy." "This is an appalling lack of concern for the women the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is supposed to be helping," Silver added.

During the meeting, Brind, the foremost authority on the breast cancer-abortion link, said Komen's funding Planned Parenthood made no sense because abortions are one of the biggest causes of breast cancer. He pointed out that breast cancer cases have risen 40 percent since abortion was made virtually unlimited in the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.

Colorado Right to Life board members Phillip Hendrix and Jo Scott and Vice President Leslie Hanks also attended the meeting and said they were grateful for the opportunity for "dialogue." "It is the fervent hope of Colorado Right to Life that the Susan G. Komen Foundation will take the information that Eve Silver, Dr. Brind and CRL shared, to the women who need to know," the group said in its statement. "Women must be told the truth about the ABC link, in order to protect themselves from this deadly disease," the group said.

Silver resigned from Komen in September 2004 after the organization told her it would not stop funding Planned Parenthood. "The Foundation has done so much for so many women through its programs and research grants," Sanchez Silver told LifeNews.com at the time. "But this revelation about Planned Parenthood and [Komen], indicates a well thought out funding strategy."

According to former Komen public relations director Kristin Kelly, Komen affiliates awarded $38.4 million in grants to support community outreach programs in 2003. That figure includes 21 grants to their local Planned Parenthood chapters totaling more than $475,000.

Sanchez Silver, a two-time breast cancer survivor and Komen's Hispanic advisor, said the decision to send Komen money to Planned Parenthood came at a time when local Komen affiliates were struggling to find enough funds to keep afloat. She is now the director of Cinta Latina Research, an organization that conducts research into breast cancer issues and their effects on minorities.

The surprise meeting came just one week before Denver's Race for the Cure, Komen's annual event to raise funds for breast cancer research.



Home