Wednesday October 6, 2010
Harding U. Drops Komen over Planned Parenthood Funding
By Kathleen Gilbert
SEARCY, Arkansas, October 6, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The campus bookstore at an Arkansas Christian university has stopped selling Susan G. Komen for the Cure items because of the organization’s funding of several affiliates that fund Planned Parenthood.
The Daily Citizen of Searcy and White County reported that, according to Harding spokesman David Crouch, university vice president Mel Sansom decided to pull the items because of the Planned Parenthood connection.
Komen has come under fire from pro-life advocates for maintaining ties with about 21 affiliates that support Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider and a top contraceptive advocate. A report by Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP) in 2008 found that Komen affiliates donated $700 thousand to Planned Parenthood between April 2005-April 2006.
While Komen spokesman John Hammarley said the Planned Parenthood funding was meant to support breast health, researchers have pointed to a scientifically-supported link between abortion and contraception and breast cancer that renders the funding for the abortion and contraceptive giant questionable at best.
An April 2009 study by scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that taking oral contraceptives while under age 18 more than tripled the risk of aggressive breast cancer, and more than quadrupled the risk in those who have used the drug recently. In addition, it found that having an abortion raises the risk of breast cancer by 40 percent.
A study published by the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons in 2007 called abortion the “best predictor of breast cancer.”
For more information on the medical connection between abortion and breast cancer, visit the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer website.