I really do hate weighing in on current events. Sociology isn't really my thing. But when I can use it as a soapbox to help identify and strengthen appropriate behavior, I'll willing to put my neck out there. Please understand that I am a white, middle-class, heterosexual male, which I have been told makes me mostly inadmissible.
Pointed "social issues" author Eric Hoffer is often misquoted as saying, "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." Ironically enough, I first heard this quote by a close friend of mine who beat breast cancer, then later stopped supporting the Susan B. Komen Foundation when they began allowing their iconic pink ribbon to adorn, if not carcinogens, then at least scientifically dubious items, healthwise speaking - much as the diabetic association promoting high starch items such as rice - that which would have the opposite intended affect. Why? Money of course. Greed. Not that the Foundation hasn't done great works, and brought awareness to the forefront with *actual* activism (not just changing their Facebook page avatar). But if "Hoffer's Law" stands to reason, with what evidence would the Susan B. Komen Foundation be immune from this cycle?
That being said, were I my own foundation, and I chose to filter those I assisted based on a set of policies and procedures put in place to protect me, I can see exactly how something like the cessation of funds to Planned Parenethood could occur. Concerning this news, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted as saying, "Politics have no place in health care." Really? I wonder how he voted on Obama's healthcare reform? When I enlisted in the Air Force, one of the advantages of serving to retirement was free lifelong healthcare. Until Congress repealed it. For the uninitiated, Congress = politics. That was about the time I became familiar with HMOs. Businesses, not doctors, determining coverage. Again, for those asleep at the wheel, busieness = politics. In fact, I've never known healthcare to ever be about anything but politics. And like everything else here lately it goes back to my Devil's Trap post. That being, You cannot extol virtues of mine that you find conducive to your personal code of ethics without accepting the same ones which may run contrary to it. From my limited understanding, the Foundation's policy (which was put in place to promote and further the agenda of the Foundation - not, you know, Planned Parenthood) was to not provide funds to anyone under investigation by the Federal government. Period. Not "anyone under investigation by the Federal government *except* Planned Parenthood."
This "outcry" for Planned Parenthood to be exempt from the Foundation's rules could very well weaken the Foundation's ability to sustain itself (by opening it up to discrimination or other fiscally draining activities), and therefore it ability to sustain Planned Parenthood! Selfish mob-mentality potentially shooting itself in the foot. "If I can't have it, no one can. We'll tear the whole thing down." Now how is that exactly helping those in need? Then again, just as it can be argued that the Susan B. Komen Foundation may have degenerated into a racket, perhaps its time for a new victor to arise and take its place thus reestablishing the "great case" and resetting Hoffer's Law?
We might all be the better for it.