Komen learns that choice is fine, unless it isn't

The news broke last Tuesday that Komen, the breast cancer charity, would not be giving breast cancer screening grants to Planned Parenthood this year, ostensibly because Planned Parenthood was under government investigation (a Republican member of Congress is looking into the group at the behest of anti-abortion groups). The amount given in 2011 totaled $680,000.

The potential loss of funding didn't matter to abortion-rights voices and their liberal media allies. What mattered was only that Komen had decided not to give to Planned Parenthood. How dare they!

The backlash was immediate and unceasing. Emails, Twitter postings and Facebook comments suggested donations to Komen be withheld. The Philadelphia Daily News wrote that Planned Parenthood's future — “and the future of women's health — is at risk if the conservative vendetta against the organization doesn't stop.” The San Jose Mercury News said Komen “put red-state, right-wing politics above low-income women's health, pure and simple.” The St. Louis Post Dispatch called it a “profound mistake.”