Planned Parenthood Battle Clouds Breast Cancer Walk

Donations to breast cancer down following Planned Parenthood squabble.

Fewer women walked in the annual Race for the Cure breast-cancer awareness and fundraising event on Sunday -- and much of the reason why is Planned Parenthood.

Registration for Sunday's 5k Race for the Cure was down 50 percent, and donations to the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation were down 65 percent, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Women are staying home rather than walk, in part because of the national Susan G. Komen chapter's decision to stop giving money to Planned Parenthood.
 
Planned Parenthood used some of that money to provide free or reduced-price mammograms. The national chapter reversed its decision after a public outcry, but the "effects are running deep," the newspaper reported.
 
"To me, this is abhorrent," said Alice Heiman, 53, of Reno, in comments to the newspaper.
 
Final numbers were not available, but as of Aug. 29, donations had dipped from $212,000 in 2011 to $76,000 in 2012, and registrations had slipped to 1,773 from 3,600, the newspaper reporteed.
 
Komen originally chose to stop giving money to Planned Parenthood because of a Congressional investigation by an anti-abortion congressperson from Florida, the newspaper reported. Planned Parenthood offers abortion services as well as mammograms, STD tests, and prenatal services, the newspaper reported.

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