The pink ribbon is blue with a tarnished halo for the Susan G. Komen foundation after deciding to withdraw their funding from Planned Parenthood caused severe criticism.

The charity cited their criteria that bars grants to any organization under investigation as the reason. With the House Republicans looking into the way Planned Parenthood uses government funds, Komen canceled their funding. This latest debacle comes after reports of Komen’s head officer’s high salaries and travel expenses. CEO, Nancy Brinker, earned $417,000 in 2010 and the Washington Post reports travel expenses of $3 million.

After receiving thousands of negative Facebook posts and emails, Komen is repealing their decision to pull funding. Komen claims changes to their funding criteria were not because of political reasons, yet reports to the contrary have surfaced. According to emails released to Huffington Post, Vice President of Public Policy, Karen Handel was behind the defunding decision. Komen staffers claim Handel was looking for a reason to de-fund Planned Parenthood. Handel stated, “If we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.”

Karen Handel resigned from the Susan G. Komen charity yet not soon enough to stop the damage. This one woman, in a short 24 hours, has severely tarnished the Komen image. One has wonder if the Komen Foundation will ever fully recover such an ill planned decision. With angry supporters pulling their support from the However, her wish to see her anti-choice goals bear fruit brought the opposite effect with Planned Parenthood receiving more than $600,000 in donations.

As anti abortion groups push taking apart Planned Parenthood, it’s vital the public understands that while Planned Parenthood centers offer many services, only 3% are abortions. Planned Parenthood’s focus isn’t abortions but reproductive health and contraception.

• 35% STD testing and treatment
• 35% Contraception
• 16% Cancer screening and prevention
• 10% Other women’s health services
• 3% Abortions

In the past 5 years, Planned Parenthood centers performed more than 4 million breast exams with grants from Komen accounting for 170,000 of those exams. Without Planned Parenthood, access to these services will be unavailable for many women. It only stands to reason that Susan G. Komen should continue to support an organization dedicated to screening and prevention of the very disease Komen is dedicated to finding the cure for.

The American people sent a clear message that political agendas have no business interfering with an organization that helps so many people in so many ways.