This week started off with great news for right-wing bullies, and ended in their defeat.
On Tuesday, the world's leading breast cancer charity announced it would no longer be funding breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood.
Over the past five ears, Komen has given millions to Planned Parenthood, enabling almost 170,000 clinical breast exams to low-income and uninsured women. The collaboration between the two organizations was an obvious and massively beneficial one in the fight against breast cancer.
In late September, Republican Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns launched an investigation into Planned Parenthood to determine whether tax funds were being used for abortion services. The investigation is a political witch hunt designed to discredit Planned Parenthood and its dedication to women's health. Just three months after, Komen caved in and announced it wouldn't fund an organization under federal investigation.
"We've always had the right to cancel contracts if a group was under investigation," the charity's CEO and found Nancy Brinker told reporters.
Komen has partnered with Planned Parenthood for years; they should know that the investigation is nothing but a political smear. But this last year, the leadership at Komen changed. In April of 2011, Komen named Karen Handel their new vice president.
Handel is an extreme social conservative who ran for Governor of Georgia in 2010 on an anti-choice platform. On her campaign blog, Handel wrote that she "do[es] not support the mission of Planned Parenthood." Sarah Palin endorsed her candidacy.
The backlash was massive. Men and women across the country spoke out against politics endangering women's health. Komen's top public health official resigned and numerous affiliated groups severed their ties with the charity. Over the last three days, Planned Parenthood raised $650,000.
After the initial round of backlash, Komen began defending itself by saying that Planned Parenthood simply doesn't provide enough breast cancer services to justify funding. The excuse-change only caused more protest.
Today, Komen apologized and announced it would continue to fund breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood.
"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," Brinker said in a statement. "...We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair."
Coupled with the successful anti-SOPA protests last month, it is clear that this is a decade of effective American protest against injustice.
Handel's influence at Komen is clear. But it also appears that the organization simply gave in to fear of right-wing pressure. Rep. Stearn's investigation is the culmination of constant right-wing bullying of Planned Parenthood.
With Komen continuing to fund Planned Parenthood, hundreds of thousands of women will be able to protect themselves from breast cancer. The response to Komen's defunding makes it clear that the majority of Americans stand with women's health and against right-wing bullies.
While this is a women's health issue, it is important to note that men have a fundamental stake in the health of their mothers, sisters, partners, and female friends. In regards to reproduction, heterosexual men want healthy women with whom they can engage in in healthy sexual and romantic lives. We depend on each other's health for our own happiness and the vitality of our country.
When Americans stand up unified against abuse, we win more and more often. Spread the word.
State Rep. Carol Alvarado sent a letter to the Komen Foundation yesterday, directed at their founder and CEO Nancy Brinker, former Ambassador to Hungary during the George W. Bush administration. Brinker named the organization after her sister Susan, who succombed to the disease in 1980 at age 36.
Here's the text of Alvarado's letter:
Dear Ambassador Brinker:
Sometimes friends disagree. Disappointment is the only word that comes to mind as I learn that the leadership of the Susan B. Komen Foundation has taken the remarkably anti-woman stance against funding lifesaving breast cancer screenings for lowincome and underserved women who seek their well-woman care at Planned Parenthood centers across the nation.
This incredibly shortsided decision, based on what I can only imagine is the propaganda and threats of extremist groups, ends an amazing partnership that over the last five years has resulted in an incredible l70,000 breast exams and 6,400 mammogram referrals.
There is so much good that we can do if we all put our differences aside and work TOGETHER. Although you have now injected yourself into the political theater, I hope that you will reconsider your decision and work to mend this now torn relationship that used to be about preventing and protecting women from breast cancer.
With great disappointment,
Carol Alvarado
Texas State Representative
Rep. Alvarado is a tremendous champion of women's health issues. During the floor debate in the House last session over the sonogram bill, she wielded a trans-vaginal sonogram probe on the floor to show Republicans--especially the male Republicans championing the ultimate intrusion of a woman's privacy--what exactly they were mandating. It is great to see Alvarado reminding the Komen foundation that we all need to work together to fight women's cancers.
Meanwhile, over on Ezra Klein's blog on the Washington Post website, Sarah Kliff has an interesting interview with a volunteer at a Komen chapter in Connecticut. The volunteer expressed her frustration with this policy, especially since her chapter is still funding a grant to PP of Southern New England.
It must suck to be the volunteers in Komen chapters today who have been thrust into this ideological debate over abortion rather than allowed to remain focused on their mission of raising money to fight cancer. It's clear that the higher-ups in the Komen foundation -- especially their new VP, the rabidly anti-choice Karen Handel -- didn't think about the terrible real-world consequences of this decision, especially on their many pro-choice volunteers, supporters, and donors.
So this is an unfortunate way to end Cervical Awareness Month: the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen Foundation, which raises money to fight breast cancer, announced today it will stop its funding to Planned Parenthood for breast exams.
That's really smart, Komen Foundation! Denying low-income women breast exams through defunding Planned Parenthood will totally help win the fight against breast cancer. OMG why didn't someone think of this sooner!
Last year, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which is the largest and most well-known breast cancer advocacy group, funded 170,000 breast exams and 6,400 mammogram referrals provided by Planned Parenthood. As we noted earlier today, Planned Parenthood performed almost 750,000 breast cancer screenings in 2010.
Apparently the Komen foundation has adopted a new rule that prevents it from providing grants to organizations that are under investigation by state, local, or federal authorities. A conservative Republican Congressman, Cliff Stearns of Florida, recently launched a probe to determine if money was improperly used for abortions. It's a b.s. accusation designed to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving funding, one which will in turn imperil the health of thousands of women.
Planned Parenthood claims that the Komen foundation is caving in to pressure from anti-abortion activists.Clearly these anti-abortion activists would rather see more women die of breast cancer than if that's what it takes to stop women from exercising their right to choose.
Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told the Associated Press, "It's hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women's lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying. It's really hurtful."
It sounds like the Komen foundation was fairly rude in how they dealt with Richards and Planned Parenthood. From the Statesman:
Richards said she was informed via a phone call from Komen's president, Elizabeth Thompson, in December.
"It was incredibly surprising," Richards said. "It wasn't even a conversation - it was an announcement."
Richards subsequently sent a letter to Komen's top leaders - CEO Nancy Brinker and board chairman Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. - requesting a meeting with the board and asserting that Komen had misrepresented Planned Parenthood's funding-eligibility status in some states.
According to Planned Parenthood, the Komen leaders replied to Richards with a brief letter ignoring the request for a meeting, defending the new grant criteria, and adding, "We understand the disappointment of any organization that is affected by these policy and strategy updates."
This was a bad move on the Komen foundation's part. Planned Parenthood primarily provides women's health care -- annual physicals and exams, pap smears, birth control prescriptions, and yes, breast exams and mammogram referrals. With this move, the Komen foundation isn't just denying support to Planned Parenthood -- they're denying support to women. It's very shameful.
Want to do something? There's a range of Internet actions you can take.
DailyKos has a quick letter you can fire off to the Susan G. Komen foundation: click here.
There's an Act.ly petition calling on Komen to reverse their decision: click here.
Boo, Komen foundation! Boo!! Pro-choice women get breast cancer, too! Shame on you.
January is Cervical Awareness Month. I'm sure you've heard all about this, what with the parades and the TV specials and everyone wearing teal ribbons all over the place.
Why should you care? Because the cervix is yet another battlefield in the Republican Party's war on women. Positioned between the vagina and the uterus -- two body parts that aging white male Republicans always seem most eager to want to legislate control of -- the cervix is literally in the middle of the debate over women's health.
Thanks to the Republican Party and their draconian cuts to women's health and family planning services, next year's Cervical Awareness Month will celebrate a lot fewer healthy Texas cervixes.
And as the Republican Legislature's efforts continue to close Planned Parenthood clinics and curtail funding to health centers that perform pap smears, we should see the incidence of and death from cervical cancers rise, and watch our overall healthcare costs increase as well. So let's talk about cervical cancer, and why the Republican legislature's policies will increase the number of women who die from this thoroughly preventable, treatable disease.
Here in America, cervical cancer is the 8th most common cancer of women. Approximately 11,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and an estimated 3,800 women are expected to die of the disease. Thankfully, here in the US our mortality rate is much less than the rest of the world, due in part to widespread Pap smear testing.
Pap smear screening every 3-5 years with appropriate follow-up can reduce the rate of cervical cancer by up to 80%. Pap smears are recommended for women beginning at age 21, or three years after a woman becomes sexually active, whichever is earlier. In 2010, Planned Parenthood performed 769,769 pap smears nationwide. (They also provided 747,607 breast exams but hey, it's not breast cancer awareness month yet, now is it?!) They also provided over 44,000 treatment procedures for women with abnormal pap smear results. It's all part of the 14.5% of Planned Parenthood's national work that consists of cancer screening and cancer prevention. Here in Texas, PP screened 104,000 women for cervical cancer in 2010. Over 13,000 pap tests were abnormal.
Between 2 and 3 million women have an abnormal pap smear every year. It's very common, as is the human papilloma virus that causes it. Yes, HPV. More on that later. Ask around at your next ladies night and you should find a few women who admit to an abnormal pap smear. For 90% of women, the abnormalities clear up within a year, especially in younger (under 30) women. Meanwhile, if you want to read more about abnormal pap smears, The Hairpin has a really helpful guide with a very cute cartoon.
70% of cervical cancer is caused by HPV. HPV vaccines reduce the risk of cancerous or precancerous changes of the cervix by about 93%. The fact is, the HPV vaccine that's so often bandied about as a political football would go a long way to reduce this disease. While Rick Perry is routinely excoriated for his failed mandate that all girls in sixth grade and above be vaccinated against HPV, the policy would have gone a long way to lower the incidence of cervical cancer. Of course, a whiff of cronyism surrounds the decision since Perry's former Chief of Staff Mike Toomey was a lobbyist for Merck at the time Perry signed the executive order. The mandated vaccine would have generated millions in revenue for the pharmaceutical giant. The policy had flaws, but with some adjustments, such as parents having the choice to opt out, and male children being vaccinated as well, it could have been a great public policy initiative.
Hispanic women have a cervical cancer incidence that is 50% higher than that of the general population. African-American women also have a higher rate. Poor White people also have a higher incidence than non-poor White people. According to the National Cancer Institute, this statistical disproportionality is due to lack of access to health care and low socio-economic status. So here in Texas, where we have a majority-minority population and some of the highest rates of poverty in the country, we're facing a greater risk of exploding cervical cancer rates if we slash family planning funds. Planned Parenthood and other clinics that the state has put on the chopping block serve an overwhelmingly low-income population.
In their attempts to slash funding from Planned Parenthood and women's health centers, Republicans are making sure that less women can access pap smears and get the early detection they need to avoid cervical cancer. Early diagnosis and treatment are vital to short- and long-term survival. The longer the cancer goes undetected and untreated, the worse the survival rates are. 80-90% of women with Stage I cancer survive five years after diagnosis; only 15% of those diagnosed with Stage IV cancer make it that long. It's worth repeating: the majority of cervical cancers in the US occur in women who haven't been screened in the last five years. That's why making sure these services are prevalent and affordable -- such that more women can get pap smears more frequently -- is so key to keeping the diagnosis and mortality rate down.
It's not just Planned Parenthood that is suffering -- Republicans slashed funding to most family planning clinics, including the federally qualified health centers they so love to prop up as an alternative to PP. Those FQHC's are already overburdened with patients, and in a state as big -- and as rapidly-growing -- as Texas, we need more outlets for low-cost women's healthcare, not less. Last biennium, 71 clinics received state funding. Now, that number is down to 41. Family planning funds used to serve 220,000 women a year. Now, that number is down to 60,000. The cuts in funding represent a drastic decrease in care, which in turn will mean more missed pap smears and more advanced diagnoses of cervical cancer.
In developing nations, cervical cancer is a leading killer of women, because these populations lack the early detection necessary to stop the disease in its tracks. Texas Republicans are enacting policies that threaten to bring our own women back to that same low level of detection, treatment, and survival. It's shameful!
For a political party that routinely abuses the phrase "pro-life," Republicans are doing everything in their power to systematically increase the number of women that die from or have their lives greatly shortened by cervical cancer.
But hey, on the upside, maybe during the next session Republicans can re-name January as "Systematic-Denial-of-Pap-Smears-to-Women,-Especially-Poor-Women,-Thus-Increasing-the-Odds-That-They-Die Awareness Month." It'd be more honest, right?
The Texas Tribune ran an interesting interview with the doctors who head the American Medical Association and Texas Medical Association today. Topics included Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates, the American Care Act and its individual mandate, and the general politicization of healthcare.
The doctors interviewed were American Medical Association President Peter Carmel, a New Jersey-based pediatric neurosurgeon, and Texas Medical Association President Bruce Malone, an Austin orthopedic surgeon. There was an interesting -- and very insightful nugget in there about the Republican Party's war on women's health. Carmel directly called out the sonogram law as a "needless, dangerous interference" in medicine, and both decried cuts to family planning and attacks on Planned Parenthood. Malone went so far as to call it "stupid."
Read for yourself, formatting/emphasis mine:
TT: Where do you come down on Texas' abortion sonogram law, which requires a sonogram at least 24 hours ahead of an abortion and mandates that a doctor play the fetal heartbeat aloud and show the woman the image of the fetus?
Carmel: It is a needless, dangerous interference with the practice of medicine by politicians. And as physicians, we have to oppose all interference that we possibly can by politicians in the practice of medicine. There are all sorts of rules all over the country, with state legislatures trying to dictate what doctors do. In the state of Florida, it is illegal for a doctor to ask the family of a child whether there are guns in the home. You can ask about storage of chemicals, about fire alarms, fire escapes, open windows, how the windows are sealed. You're allowed to ask all those questions, but you cannot ask whether there are firearms in the home. Firearms are a major cause of childhood mortality and injury. It's so extreme as to be ludicrous. The important principle is, the government shouldn't interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. The government shouldn't practice medicine.
TT: And what about Texas lawmakers' efforts to slash spending on family planning? Now they're threatening not to participate in the Medicaid Women's Health Program if they can't exclude Planned Parenthood.
Malone: That would be a really stupid thing to do. Planned Parenthood does not do abortions in the state of Texas with state funds. So this is a very stupid political thing. It's not like the state of Texas has another safety net for these women for medical care. The Texas Medical Association doesn't want to get into the issue of whether a patient wants an elective abortion. That's not what we're dealing with. We're talking about well woman services, pap smears and breast exams, things that make public health sense. And we don't want to see those women who are vulnerable denied essential medical services because someone wants to debate an ethics issue. That's their right to debate that. That's fine, but these are essential medical services.
Carmel: What it sets up is two classes of patients. If you've got rocks, you've got the ability, you've got access to contraception, to women's health, to all of these things. If you're poor, we're going to deny you access to that kind of health. That's first of all not tolerable for medicine, and it can't be tolerable for Americans. No American would say, "Yes, the poor should get inferior treatment."
Aww, Dr. Carmel's clearly spent too long in a Blue State. Actually, down here the Republicans do want to deny poor people treatment. We've seen it session after session after session.
It's important to note that these leaders in the field of medicine disagree with what the Republican legislature is doing -- making women's health an ideological issue, rather than a medical one. Slashing funds to women's health and family planning services hurts all of us.
I'm glad that these distinguished doctors realize this. It's too bad our Republican legislators don't.
Texas Republicans were temporarily slowed in their efforts to shut down Planned Parenthood yesterday, as the Federal government denied the state's request to exclude PP from the list of providers in the Medicaid Women's Health Program. Basically, Republicans are trying to put Planned Parenthood out of business in Texas by blocking them from receiving patients who use the Medicaid WHP to pay for health care. Charming!
While on one hand this is good news for women, as the Federal decision extends the Medicaid WHP for three months, the bad news is that Republicans may decide to end the Women's Health Program entirely out of spite.
Fran Hagerty, chief executive of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, characterized the federal decision - which extends the program for three months while state officials decide whether to back down from their request - as "the ugliest possible scenario." She fears the state will opt to end the Women's Health Program rather than allow Planned Parenthood to continue to be part of it, and that 130,000 low-income women may end up losing out on cancer screenings and birth control.
The Tribune doesn't make it painfully, obviously clear that it's Republicans who are behind these efforts to drastically impede women's access to health care. So I will!
This is another effort by Texas Republicans to deliberately and aggressively destroy comprehensive women's health care in Texas. This is not just about stopping abortion: this is about preventing women and children from receiving health care, by shutting down one of the major providers of care to low-income women: Planned Parenthood. Texas Republicans are trying to make women's health care a partisan issue, and standing firmly against women having the full range of providers and services available to them.
What does our Governor have to say about it? Again, the Tribune quotes Fran Hagerty:
Perry is "blaming the feds and saying that this money was going to go to abortions. That's a complete lie," Hagerty said. "This is a federal program, and they have any right to say you have to let every qualified provider participate. You can't pick and choose who you like and don't like."
Planned Parenthood is at the crux here not only because they provide abortions, but because 44% of the Medicaid WHP program funds to go the provider, which is used for basic health care and family planning. Pap smears, breast exams, well-woman visits, STD screenings, birth control prescriptions. Planned Parenthood is simply the largest service provider in Texas through the Women's Health Program.
Republicans have a solution: Planned Parenthood can just stop providing abortions! Then everyone wins, except women and their pesky right to choose!
After being involved with Planned Parenthood for eight years, either as a volunteer or as an employee, Abby Johnson suddenly resigned this week and joined the Coalition for Life. So why would someone who had dedicated so much of their life working for reproductive rights suddenly not only change their views on abortion but on the complete scope of reproductive rights? After conducting an investigation and interviewing several sources it has become clear that this was not a spiritual awakening.
The story that Johnson has repeated is that she had a "change of heart" after witnessing an abortion through an ultrasound. According to an interview with ABC News, Johnson held the probe on the patient's abdomen during the procedure, and according to that interview Johnson was unclear as to the reason why she was there during this procedure because it was not a normal part of her duties. According to an interview with World Net Daily, Johnson said that for "whatever reason, the physician had called me back to assist with the procedure."
However, Johnson did not just happen to witness the procedure, and the procedure did not actually even take place at the Planned Parenthood that Johnson was the director of in Bryan, Texas. Johnson was visiting another clinic in the Houston area; she was there visiting a doctor that Bryan clinic was considering utilizing for abortion procedures. Johnson was specifically interested in the doctor because of the very fact that the doctor used the ultrasound, which makes the abortion safer, more efficient, and many believe more humane for the fetus. Confidential sources also confirmed that Johnson was pleased by the visit to the doctor and impressed with the procedure.
For over a year and a half I have been a volunteer escort at the Planned Parenthood reproductive health care facility in Bryan, Texas; this particular facility is located in a town home to arguably the most conservative public university, Texas A&M, and is known as one of the most anti-choice areas in the country. Located just steps from Planned Parenthood is an organization that opposes reproductive rights, the Coalition for Life. The fence that surrounds Planned Parenthood serves as the frontline between those that support reproductive rights and those that opposed reproductive rights. This week someone crossed from one side of the fence to the other: the director of the Planned Parenthood joined the Coalition for Life. How could something like this happen? The story is more complicated than the mainstream media is reporting.
Early on Saturday mornings, the days during which surgical abortions are performed; I arrive at Planned Parenthood and walk through the double doors and sign-in on the volunteer check-in sheet. I put on the yellow and orange volunteer vest, and check out a security badge. Over the next several hours I spend my morning escorting clients into the facility. Volunteer escorts meet clients at their cars and welcome them to Planned Parenthood, and as soon as the clients open their car doors the protesters being shouting through the fence. Escorts simply walk clients from their automobiles to the front door of the facility, and this demonstrates to the clients that we are there to support them. After clients leave the facility escorts walk the clients back to their automobiles, and then ensure that they have a clear path out of the driveway.
The protesters outside of the facility will shout through the fence at the clients the entire time they are arriving and leaving. Also, the protesters will stand along the driveway holding brochures and pamphlets while attempting to get the clients attention. The brochures and pamphlets include factually inaccurate information and intellectually dishonest claims. Often the false link between abortion and breast cancer is claimed in the literature, despite the fact that according to the American Cancer Society "the scientific evidence does not support the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer." Also, the claim is made that women who have abortions will suffer "post-abortion syndrome," however, "post-abortion syndrome" is not recognized as a legitimate medical condition by either the American Psychological Association (APA) or the American Psychiatric Association.
It was during these mornings that I met Abby Johnson, the director of the Planned Parenthood in Bryan. Johnson was always open to talk about the issues dealing with reproductive rights, and I have always known her to be an outspoken and an opinionated advocate of reproductive rights. Sometimes Johnson would visit with the volunteer escorts in front of the facility, and complaints about the protesters seemed to always be one of the topics of conversation. When it comes to the protesters Abby had plenty to complain about. As a volunteer and then later as an employ of Planned Parenthood, she had seen times when the protesters were much more aggressive and much more hostile towards the clients, volunteers, and employees. In fact Johnson herself has been the victim of harassment, and even death threats. While Coalition for Life does not claim responsibility for the actions of all of the protesters, the Coalition for Life facilitates an atmosphere that contributes to those actions.
Every day during 40 Days for Life protesters stand in front of the fence at the Planned Parenthood in Bryan, and every day they spread misinformation and lies to the patients that utilize the clinic for reproductive health care. The protesters regularly attempt to pass information to the clients of Planned Parenthood both verbally and in written form. However, much of the information that the protesters try and give the clients is both intellectually dishonest and factually incorrect. Often false information is given about the services provided at Planned Parenthood and the facts about abortion and reproductive health care.
One of the pamphlets that are often given to clients, titled "10 Reasons to Avoid Planned Parenthood," includes several factual inaccuracies and misrepresentations. The first claim listed is that the services at Planned Parenthood focus only abortion, and that while over 6,000 abortions were performed less than 300 women received prenatal care. The truth is that according to annual reports abortion only makes up 7% of the total services provided at Planned Parenthood. Also Planned Parenthood does provide both prenatal care and adoption refers for women that chose not to terminate a pregnancy.
According to the Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas 2006 annual report, 87% of the patients visited Planned Parenthood for family planning: 89,611 out of the 103,004 patients. Also, 4,969 people were tested for HIV and counseled on prevention. Only 6,811 patients who visited all of the area Planned Parenthoods, including the Houston metropolitan area and Bryan-College Station, terminated pregnancies.
Another distortion of the facts include implying that surgical abortions are dangerous, even though less than 0.3% of abortion patients experience a complication that requires hospitalization.
On a Saturday I got out of bed at six in the morning, and put on some comfortable clothes threw a good book in my backpack and put some good music on my iPod. Then I rode my bicycle about three miles down the road to Planned Parenthood. Why would I get up so early on a Saturday just to go to Planned Parenthood? Because not sleeping in on a Saturday morning can make an important impact on women's reproductive rights. I started volunteering at the local Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas about a year ago, and in many ways I feel that it has been one of the most significant things that I do as an activist that effects people's lives.
Every day women walk through the doors of reproductive health facilities, and in many of these facilities women must deal with harassment for what is a very private and personal choice. The protesters that line up in front of these facilities claim that they are there because they care about women, and that they want to see an end to abortion. However, it is difficult to believe that the protest care about women when they participate in a culture that is patriarchal in nature and decidedly anti-woman. It is also difficult to believe that they want to see an end to abortion when they oppose every policy that actually reduces the number of abortions.
Early on Saturday mornings I arrive at the Planned Parenthood clinic, a facility that has been routinely targeted over the years but has enjoyed loyal support from community members. Sometimes if you arrive at the clinic in the early morning there are not protesters, but this week marked the first week of the anti-choice protest 40 Days for Life. As I came through the gate I noticed about half a dozen protesters in front of the fence that surrounds Planned Parenthood, and I parked my bicycle near the front door. The Planned Parenthood I volunteer at is surrounded by a fence, and staff and patients park inside the fence that provides a barrier between them and the protesters. Some reproductive health facilities are not as fortunate.
Rep. Alvarado is a tremendous champion of women's health issues. During the floor debate in the House last session over the sonogram bill, she wielded a trans-vaginal sonogram probe on the floor to show Republicans--especially the male Republicans championing the ultimate intrusion of a woman's privacy--what exactly they were mandating. It is great to see Alvarado reminding the Komen foundation that we all need to work together to fight women's cancers.
