More About the Pink Ribbons

To follow up on the paragraph I highlighted in the last blog, I went to the website of Americans United for Life (aul.org) and I recommend it to you, just to know what that crowd is up to. The Race for the Cure pink ribbon is specially highlighted on the site, and the decision of the Komen organization to defund Planned Parenthood is the biggest story. In fact, Planned Parenthood is obviously AUL's principal bugaboo, as it seems to be now for all the social conservatives in this brave new world we live in.

It won't leave you with a very good feeling to see that pink ribbon linked up on the same site with AUL's crusade against Planned Parenthood.

The original article by Andrew Rosenthal referred to the various products that display the pink ribbon, specifically mentioning yogurt. That would be Yoplait yogurt, owned by General Mills, a company pretty sensitive to controversy. Their website is easy to find, and their phone number is on the side of the yogurt container. Just saying.

This seems like a good cautionary example of the baby with the bathwater allegory. Clearly the Race for the Cure program has done, and is doing, good work. The Yoplait website claims that they alone have donated $30 million in the last 13 years (which I assume is the number of years they have had their association with the pink ribbon campaign). The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the Race for the Cure organization a B+ rating, and Charity Navigator shows that a little more than 80% of their income goes to programs.

But maybe consumer pressure on companies like General Mills can force the Susan Kamen Race for the Cure organization to rethink their alliance with AUL, and to reinstate funding for Planned Parenthood. These were both so obviously political decisions and bad ones. But decisions can be unmade too, if there is the proper motivation. It doesn't take as many complaints as people might think to generate a response from a corporation like GMI.

The president of AUL is quoted on their site, in defense of the Kamen defunding of Planned Parenthood, as saying that “Breast health is not Planned Parenthood’s core competency..." Well, I would respond that it isn't AUL's core competency either, and at least everyone assoicated with Planned Parenthood has women's rights in the forefront of their minds, which is more than can be said for the people of Americans United for Life.