Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum was the latest to comment on the Susan G. Komen for the cure decision to fund breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood.
He told Fox News Sunday: ‘I don’t believe breast cancer research is advanced by funding an organisation that does abortions where you’ve seen ties to cancer and abortions.’
The organisation had come under a deluge of opposition from lawmakers, women’s rights advocates, and even employees of Susan G. Komen for originally pulling its funding for the screenings.
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Linked: Rick Santorum told Fox News Sunday that he doesn't think federal funding should go to Planned Parenthood because he says breast cancer is linked to abortion
After going under fire, the organisation said Friday that it would reverse its decision to cut funding, but added that it makes no promises to renew its grant to Planned Parenthood.
Restored: Nancy Brinker of The Susan G. Komen Foundation Race For The Cure restored funding but does not promise the grant will be renewed
Mr Santorum’s statement on the conservative station seemed to have little basis in fact. According to a large 2007 study conducted by the Archives of Internal Medicine showed there was no link between abortions and breast cancer.
The study added that statistics were often misreported – healthy women may not report an abortion because of the procedure’s sensitive and stigmatised nature, and women with breast cancer may report it because they are looking for a culpable cause to their illness, the New York Times reported.
In the study, 105,716 women, aged 29-46 were surveyed, and abortion was definitely ruled out as a cause of the disease.
Planned Parenthood offers the service as well as many other preventative measures like STI screenings and treatment and contraception.
Earlier: In January, he said someone who got pregnant because of rape should 'make the best out of a bad situation'
Cancer screening accounts for around 16 per cent of its services.
In 2011 alone, the Supreme Court allowed 92 state enacted abortion restrictions, despite the fact that abortions had been on a moderate decline since 1990, according to figures by the Washington Post and the Guttmacher Institute.
That was the most restrictions imposed since the benchmark Roe v. Wade case in 1973.
In January, Mr Santorum openly expressed his opinion on abortion, telling CNN that even a child conceived through rape is a ‘gift,’ and ‘make the best out of a bad situation.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097021/Rick-Santorum-doesnt-believe-federal-funding-Planned-Parenthood-ties-cancer-abortion.html#ixzz1ldg5dNzg
