The 17 Planned Parenthood clinics in Illinois do not receive funding from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Charity. But Carol Brite-- the president of Planned Parenthood Illinois-- says Komen's decision to continue providing funding to Planned Parenthood on a national level is good news. She says it's thanks to three days of passionate criticism from the public.
Carole Brite, President/CEO, Planned Parenthood Illinois said "There was an out crying of support from donors, patients. Average who really want Komen and Planned Parenthood to work together, because really we share a joint mission, which is the early detection and prevention of breast cancer"
The controversy has a silver lining for Planned Parenthood. Since Tuesday it raised $3 million to support its breast cancer preventive services. It usually receives between $500,000 and $700,000 a year from the Komen foundation.
Today Cecile Richards-- President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America did a conference call with reporters: "We are very relieved and grateful to resume relationship that we've had for several years with the Komen foundation, our work has always been about the work and about healthcare for women and we're excited to get back to that now"
In addition to public pressure-- a group of 26 U.S. Democratic senators sent a letter to Komen urging the charity to continue its grants to Planned Parenthood. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin didn't sign that particular letter-- but says he was working on his own letter today when he found out Komen had reversed the decision to pull funding.
"That was the right thing to do. The people who are supporting Komen are across the board... And i think the folks at Komen realized their decision-- threw them into the middle of a debate which was going to hurt efforts to find cures for breast cancer," Durbin said.
The Komen foundation released a statement today reading in part: "We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives"
