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Many former backers can't forget Komen grant flap

They feel conflicted after the charity cuts funding to Planned Parenthood, then reverses its decision.

The Associated Press

NEW YORK - When Dorothy Twinney first saw a Race for the Cure walk for breast cancer -- "a sea of pink" traveling through her hometown of Plymouth, Mich. -- she was so moved that she sat in her car and wept.

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Some of an estimated 45,000 people take part in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Little Rock, Ark., in 2010. Both abortion-rights backers and abortion foes are upset at Komen.

2010 File Photo/The Associated Press

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Last week, after watching The Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity announce plans to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, then abandon those plans amid a public furor, Twinney decided she was done with the organization for which she raised thousands of dollars on three-day, 60-mile walks that left her feet bloodied and blistered, but her spirits high.

"It just feels like it's all tarnished now," the 41-year-old mother of two said. "Honestly, I'm not sure what they can do to change that."

At week's end, many longtime Komen supporters were feeling similarly conflicted. Some, depending on where they stood on the hot-button issue of abortion, called it more of a betrayal.

Those who supported Komen's grants to Planned Parenthood for breast-cancer screenings called the initial move to cut them politically motivated; those opposed to the grants said the same thing about the reversal.

The outrage clearly stunned Komen, the country's most widely known breast cancer organization. "I think (Komen) has been horrified to be so caught up in this culture war," said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League.

Many women described feeling caught in the middle when The Associated Press first reported on Tuesday that Komen had adopted criteria excluding Planned Parenthood from future breast screening grants because it was the subject of an investigation launched by a Florida congressman at the urging of anti-abortion groups. The grants totaled $680,000 in 2011.

Alyce Lee-Walker was one of them. A longtime Komen supporter, she'd never given money to Planned Parenthood. But when she learned of the funding cut, she immediately went online to donate $188 -- the 88 signifying good luck in Chinese.

She didn't stop there. The small-business owner from Pinehurst, N.C., went about removing all the pink-ribbon stickers, a Komen symbol, that she'd affixed to her belongings.

"I took them off my personal car, the business car, off the doors in the office," she said.

And that pink chef's knife she bought at Williams-Sonoma, with some of the proceeds going to Komen? "I'm done with that, too," Lee-Walker said.

Even angrier about the reversal were anti-abortion advocates who had applauded Komen's original move.

"We were very happy to see (Komen) discontinue funding to Planned Parenthood," said Tony Lauinger, state chairman for Oklahomans For Life. "For an entity ... that's trying to prevent breast cancer across the world, it's directly counterproductive that the organization would be giving funds to Planned Parenthood, which is the largest provider of abortions in the country."

The Pro-Life Action League's Scheidler sent out emails and social media messages Friday aimed at "tens of thousands" of abortion foes, urging them to withhold donations to Komen. Days earlier, when the original decision was reported, he'd urged people to give to Komen.

Renee Wiesner, a mother of nine who opposes abortion, said she had been encouraged by Komen's original decision.

"I had known about the grants, and that's why I had avoided supporting Komen in the past," said Wiesner, of Aurora, Ill. Now, she said, she will wait for the furor to die down before deciding where to contribute.

She said she suspected the reversal was simply a PR move by Komen: "They need to keep a good public image if they want to be as successful as they've been."