Anyone who was within tweet-shot of a social media gizmo last week could not escape the public’s coverage of Susan G. Komen’s latest turn against women and the pursuit of a cure for cancer… (of course, the cure for cancer already exists, but that would mean growing certain herbs the FDA deems illegal and that Big Pharma couldn’t make billions of dollars from our ability to heal ourselves by going back to earth… but I digress…)

Why people were outraged at Susan G. Komen foundation pulling current and future funding from Planned Parenthood is a mystery to me.  In 2010, the Komen branding nazis began suing smaller charities that were using the phrase “for the cure” in their mottoes. Smaller local or regional groups that raise money to support breast cancer research and women in their local areas suddenly had to give up use of the words “for the cure” or spend their hard-raised funds on lawyers to stand up for their rights to maintain their mottoes. Clearly, Komen had become too big for its britches… or just filled with neo-con bitches?

A few days in the hot-seat, and Komen finally came around to pretending to make amends. Komen issued a statement:

While Komen and right-wingers were trying to sneak money away from Planned Parenthood under the pretense of not giving money to organizations under “investigation,” no one was speaking up for Planned Parenthood and why it is being attacked by Congress and their “investigation” in the first place.

Komen’s press release consisted of a banal “apology” and “explanation”:

“The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. 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.

Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

… We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.”

Yeah, right.

Susan G. Komen’s public image is officially tarnished. But better than that, women around the United States spoke out and spoke UP for women’s access to healthcare, women’s access to choice about their bodies, and women’s refusal to be a pawn in the political machine of Republican conservatives who will try to rip away the last of our basic freedoms should they win the Presidency and/or control of Congress in 2012.

Last week was a beautiful week for democracy, activism, and showing the world the vagina revolution didn’t end in the 1970’s!