Komen Got Bullied by 'Mobs and Tyrants'

'Rabid' pro-choicers over-reacted: Kathleen Parker
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2012 10:45 AM CST
Komen Got Bullied by 'Mobs and Tyrants'
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) speaks during a press conference at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Seattle on Friday.   (Getty Images)

Kathleen Parker doesn't get what she sees as the "rabid response from abortion-rights supporters" to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure saga. Komen has every right to cut ties with Planned Parenthood if it chooses to do so, no matter the reason. "Don’t like it? Don’t run in Komen’s fundraising races," she writes in the Washington Post. "Don’t buy a pink blender. Give directly to Planned Parenthood." She sees a parallel with President Obama's decision to make Catholic institutions cover birth control in health insurance.

Pro-choice advocates, including Obama, have shown they "are willing to tread on fundamental freedoms in order to impose and secure ideological purity," writes Parker. These two fights aren't so much about abortion or contraception, but "whether we stand firm on our nation’s core beliefs in freedom of conscience and religious liberty," she writes. In the meantime, "coercion and intimidation are the tools of mobs and tyrants and have no place in this calculus." Click for an opposing view, making the case that Komen's "overreach" could be a pivotal moment for women's health advocacy. (More Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation stories.)

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