There is only one picture of my grandmother and me. When I was only a baby, my 56-year-old grandmother, Augusta Francis, died from breast cancer. She was a hard-working mother of five and she and my grandfather, Henry Francis, put 
three of their children through college. He was a farmer and she was a domestic worker.
In their small town, there were no women's health clinics. She did not have access to breast cancer screening. She found the lumps herself. By the time she was diagnosed, it was too late.
Yesterday, the Susan G. Komen Foundation pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars in breast cancer screening funds from Planned Parenthood.[1]
*Urge the Komen Foundation’s Board of Directors to restore the funding that allows hundreds of thousands of women to get breast cancer screening through Planned Parenthood--and tell them that regardless of where people stand on pro-choice/pro-life issues, breast cancer exams for low income women shouldn't be a political football.
http://action.momsrising.org/letter/KomenDefundsBreasts/
Each year, millions of women are screened for breast cancer at Planned Parenthood health centers, and Susan G. Komen's funding pays for about 170,000 of those screenings. [2] These services are particularly important for women from under-served communities like my grandmother.
Now isn't the time to cut funds to ANY entity that provides affordable breast cancer screenings. In fact, more funds are needed for education, care, and screenings as a combination of these are necessary to save lives.
*Join us in urging the Komen Foundation’s Board of Directors to restore the funding that allows hundreds of thousands of women to get breast cancer screening through Planned Parenthood:
http://action.momsrising.org/letter/KomenDefundsBreasts/
Please forward this e-mail to your family, neighbors and friends--and post this action link on your Facebook page too.
Together, we are a powerful force for women and families.
[1] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/31/146160911/susan-g-komen-halts-grants-to-planned-parenthood
[2] http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/31/susan-g-komen-drops-funding-for-planned-parenthood/
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