Pro-life, Pro-birth, and Pink Ribbons
When I was 33, Mom and Pop Moore were staying with me. Mom was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for breast cancer. For those of you who have been around a loved one with cancer, I don’t have to explain. For those of you who haven’t, nothing can prepare you for it.
It is remarkably painful.
It was Monday morning. I felt a lump. I was lying on my back in bed. I still remember the spot on the ceiling I was staring at. I had a 7-year-old daughter. The reality of my mother’s pain down the hall filled my eyes with tears.
I called Planned Parenthood. They understood the urgency through my panic and tears. “We’ll fit you in tomorrow morning.”
On Tuesday. Jo, my new doctor, found two lumps.
She called the best breast cancer surgeon, Dr. Laurie Bleicher, who sent me over for a biopsy. I explained I didn’t have insurance. A woman at Planned Parenthood said she’d write a grant.
By Friday, I was in surgery. Saved.
On the morning of my 40th birthday, I woke up early to join Mom and Pop for a Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk in Homer. I walked past lanterns with the names of women I loved who had died of the pink ribbon disease. Beloved coach and friend, Alice Witte. Bev Englishbee, mother and ever-smiling woman at piano recitals.
We walked in their memory We raised money. We prayed for a cure.
Walkers camped on the ball field and woke up to the Lions Club making breakfast by the track. Looking over Kachemak Bay, basking in the warm June sun, how could we not find a cure?
Last week, the Susan G. Komen Foundation pulled $680,000 in annual funding for breast cancer screening from Planned Parenthood. Back in November, Komen had quietly pulled $12 million from embryonic stem cell research centers. Both decisions leaving no doubt that the foundation has morphed from a nonpolitical nonprofit to a full-on, right-wing, agenda-driven political organization undeserving of its 501c3 status. (One thing Komen didn’t pull was its CEO’s $460,000-a-year paycheck.)
The realization that I’d been manipulated to contribute to a cause only to see it abandon that cause for politics nauseated me.
Pink has become a political industry. Pink ribbons, pink toasters, pink Kitchen-Aids, pink sweatshirts, pink yogurt or buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken (yes, it comes in pink buckets now).
The NFL and our Aces go pink. For a price, the Komen Foundation will even slap a pink ribbon on “beauty” products containing suspected carcinogens.
At the end of last week, because of the enormous backlash against its machinations, Komen devised a PR stunt and announced it would reinstate Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screenings — for the rest of this year.
Taking breast cancer screening away from poor women to prove you’re “pro-life” is pathetic. True, the Komen Foundation can spend its earnings however it chooses, but I won’t walk for them again.
Which brings me to “pro-life.”
“Pro-life” has to mean more than “pro-birth.”
I’m pro-life because I’m for health care for all; food security for children in school and at home; labor laws that ensure a living wage for workers; respect and dignity for the elderly; quality education for rich and poor children alike; abolition of the death penalty; ending wars; and ensuring a healthy environment.
I don’t need a pink ribbon from the political hacks at Susan G. Komen. I’ve shopped for wigs with my mother. I’ve looked up at the anesthesiologist before surgery. I’ve earned my pink ribbon.
I’ll wear it to union rallies, assembly meetings, the PTA and the Legislature, wherever I have to go to advance causes that truly are pro-life.
Thank You for putting into words my own thoughts.
I have been so outraged, disgusted and appalled by Komen. The only good thing from this is that it got me, and maybe many others, to really take a good look inside of their foundation, who is on their board, how much they get paid, and just what kind of right wing radical politics they are playing.
I lost an aunt to breast cancer about twenty so years ago. Less than a month ago I lost one of my best and dearest friends of over fifty years to this horrible disease. Right now my sister is fighting her second war with bc..and so far winning! Yes this is very personal to me.
Pro life is much more than pro birth….and I refuse to allow anyone to say I am not pro life because I am pro choice
and LOVE Up with Chris Haynes…one of the best shows on tv…all of his panel discussions are great!
Beautiful post. Thank you.
I saw this clip highlighted on Sullivan’s today. As a woman who has been going through breast cancer treatments for more than two years, the subject of this video has a few words for Komen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2ZwpSwm_4as
No more pink ribbons for me but I will give generously to organizations that benefit women’s health.
I just watched the video; what a gutsy and courageous woman. I’ve always been skeptical of the Susan G. Komen Foundation; now, thanks to their horrific gaffe, my skepticism has been vindicated. Planned Parenthood has been marginalized and made a scapegoat by the Republican Party and the religious right for far too long. Now when my sister’s daughter-in-law wants a contribution for the annual Run for a Cure, I’ll explain that my contribution is going to our local Planned Parenthood office which has to put up with protesters standing in front in pseudo-prayer almost every day.
Shannyn, I’m with you all the way on this. I’m also pro-life, the life that begins at the birth of a wanted and healthy baby.
She is a strong and amazing woman. I hope more people like her will find the courage to speak out. If we ever start donating our money to organizations that really want to find a cure for cancer, we surely will make more progress than we seem to be making with all these walks. One would think by now that if they were using all that money well, breast cancer would no long be the horrific threat to women’s (and men’s) lives that it is now.
I saw that video over the weekend. What a beautiful woman…inside and out!
Her scars did not seem at all unpleasant to me…just reminders of a hard-fought battle that she should be proud of waging with honor.
I do believe you missed the pink Glock that was raffled last year in Arizona,by the NRA. It was a pink version of the same gun used to kill a number of innocent lives and wound several more,including Representative Giffords.RWNJ and the NRA never miss a chance to score political points regardless of the tragedies they exploit.
I have been so angry at SGK for the last few days that I could spit nails. I’ve even been dreaming about it. Not only is PP going to get a monthly donation, I am going out of my way to expose this jackass women for what they are. Now that my eyes are wide open, it’s not going to be pretty. And it’s sure as hell not going to be pink.
Shannyn – thanks for the heartfelt post. Hugs.
Timing could not be better. The Canadian government has helped fund a movie/documentary that is currently in showing in cinemas titled Pink Ribon, Inc. It is a great movie and exposes the soft underbelly of corporate greed.
We found out this week that genetic testing is highly recommended for our two daughters aged 27 and 34. 80% chance. Their paternal auntie and grandmother are both BC survivors. And then, we have our two grandgirlies whose daddy is our son. Jesus. Two little girlies. Breast cancer.
Cancer is a rat-bastard. So far, I am a survivor. Colon.
Our elder daughter sent me this link today. I need to read it a few more times.
http://barbaraehrenreich.com/cancerland.htm
I’m with you, my money will go directly to Planned Parenthood. I like your characterization of “Pro-Life”, not Pro-Birth. That is where the Repubs have got it wrong, they want you to be born, but the H#ll with you after that, you’re on your own!
Up w/Chris Hayes and his powerful women’s panel had an EXCELLENT discussion about the Komen fiasco. Great watch this morning:
Joining Chris were Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, host of MSNBC’s newest show “Melissa Harris-Perry” which premieres February 18th at 10AM EST Melissa Harris-Perry, former director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State and Princeton University professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, senior contributing writer for Newsweek / The Daily Beast Michelle Goldberg”
Discussion starts in the last 15mins of segment one
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46271803#null
Continues in segment two called “More Up/w/CH”
They brought up some points that I hadn’t even considered, think I will watch it again, it was so powerful.
I’m not sure the Up w/Chris works right, now the same link is giving me the news stuff. However, you can go direct to his website and click on it from there:
http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/
I agree. I saw that too. Great panel and interesting discussion.
Thank you, Shannyn. LIFE is more than nine months of gestation.
Great post, Shannyn. I lost my mother to breast cancer, and she would have been among the first to protest the actions of the Komen Foundation. I’m proud to do so on her behalf.
“Pro-life” has to mean more than “pro-birth…..”
Bravo. So true. I hope you don’t mind if I use this….
Thank you for sharing this Shannyn.
When I lost my cousin to breast cancer five years ago I became a huge supporter
of Komen. Walking, the ribbons, donations—I did it all. Like most, I live and learn.
I shall now find a more direct route to help.
All my Komen tee shirts went to Goodwill. Any supposed-nonprofit that gives only 41% of its income to services and programs, pays its CEO over $450,000, and spent more than 1 million to lobby against the Affordable Health Care Act should be labeled a corporation and taxed.
I am a survivor from a high risk family; I am actively campaigning against Komen.
If it has pink on it, I’m steering to a competitor. I will not give them one penny. Nothing. I will not help to pay those people’s salaries.
I am definitely your kind of “pro-life”.
Love and hugs to you. Thanks for this post. I had a breast scare this year. And I bought lots of things with pink ribbons on them .. before and after. No more pink ribbons for me. But I will contribute to the American Cancer Society and I have already sent a contribution to Planned Parenthood. Take care of you.
My mother was a breast cancer survivor. Fortunately, she didn’t need chemo, but surgery and radiation caused her distress enough.
The cancer was iatrogenic (doctor caused). Because she had great insurance and all the risk factors, her old body was subjected to THREE mammograms a year, every year, until, as the radiologists say (among themselves), “We keep X-raying the breast until we find the cancer the X-rays cause.”
What angered me even more was receiving her death certificate, many years later. Even though she died because she didn’t want to go on living (the excuse was a bacterial/yeast infection, the cause was her will), written on the death certificate as cause of death: breast cancer. It was a filthy, disgusting LIE. It was written there so phony organizations like Komen can keep raking in the cash. It was there to scare women into having procedures they don’t need. It was there for greed.
And Shannyn, you have all my sympathy. I have one little quibble. The pinkwashing in the cosmetics industry is widespread. I have spoken to pathologists, one on one, personally. Inside EVERY breast tumor they’ve examined they’ve found parabens. Ethylparaben, methylparaben, butylparaben, and every combination thereof. They are DEADLY poisons, and they’re in your shampoo, conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, and makeup. Just as dangerous are the toluene, butylene, pthalates, and formaldehyde in that lovely nail polish that makes your hands so pretty.
Cosmetics without parabens, petrochemicals, toxin-loaded “fragrance” (which might contain hundreds of chemicals), and other deadly, carcinogenic chemicals ARE available. They’re just not quite as easy to find. A good place to start is the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetics database, available for free at http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com
Health and peace.
Thank you for that heartfelt and informative post.
I have always been allergic to sooooo many things. Many years ago, my Dr. sent me to Kansas City to find the cause. I had a breaking out and a terrible rash on my chin, which later got so bad that the skin broke and I could hardly move my chin.
The Dr in Kansas city told me to stop using about everything I had.
make-up, nail polish, toothpaste, laundry soap, deordorant, –you name it-I couldn’t use it.
I was to wear only natural fibers—–like cottons
Toothpaste—I was to use -baking soda
Also baking soda for deordorant.
No nail polish
No make-up
He gave me something to put in my bath water–but don’t remember what it was.
After I “cleared-up”—I was to start using one of the products, one at a time
Well—-it was the nail polish that was the culpert.
To this day—I do not wear nail polish.
Also, I only wear clothes made with natural fibers. Polyester is a big No No for me.
I use lipstick on occasion, but No make-up.
I am also careful as to what soaps to use . and NO MSG in my food products.
A lot of shampoos have parafin.
I use Aussie shampoo, and NO hair spray.
Hope this info helps anyone who is allergic to some products.
Shannyn, you are more than just pro-life. You are pro-quality life. A much better position to take and I wndys with you.
Damn right. Pro-Life has to go beyond birth, it has to go from cradle to the grave.
Comments are working again. It seems that the previous open thread is the only one with problems. Many apologies to those of you who were inconvenienced.