It is unfortunate that Komen Northeast Ohio would choose to distance itself from our organization, especially since we are both in the business of keeping women healthy and saving lives. Please call Komen NE Ohio at 216-292-2873 to respectfully share your dissatisfaction.

The Komen organization issued the below statement, via email and on their web site, to their supporters. Komen pulled the statement off of their web site soon after Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio posted a link to the Komen site and the above request for individuals to contact Komen.

You can read Komen's full statement below or download a .pdf of the email here.

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"Dear Komen Supporter,

Thank you for your continued support of Komen Northeast Ohio.

As you may have heard, Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo has recently issued a statement discouraging Catholics from donating to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The bishop expressed concern that Komen may one day fund embryonic stem cell research, as well as reservations about Komen’s supposed ties to Planned Parenthood. Bishop Blair issued the statement without ever speaking with Komen.

This story was covered both by WKYC – TV 3 as well as The Plain Dealer.

We at Komen Northeast Ohio want to present you with the facts of the situation and to reassure you that we do not fund any organizations that are in violation of Catholic teaching.

Komen Northeast Ohio met with Bishop Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese last year, and we discussed our grant funding in depth. Bishop Lennon was satisfied that the monies raised by our affiliate are going to help prevent and cure breast cancer without breach of Catholic beliefs.

Bishop Lennon was also assured that local funds do not support Planned Parenthood or any abortion provider and that the funds given to national programs do not involve any embryonic stem cell research.

Komen Northeast Ohio has been in constant communication with Bishop Lennon's office, and they know that our situation has not changed. We still do not fund Planned Parenthood, and we have not, and do not have any involvement with embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cell research does not even have any application to breast cancer research.

Therefore, 100% of the monies raised via Komen Northeast Ohio are used in line with Catholic teaching.

The funds raised by Komen Northeast Ohio help to save lives in our local community. As the results of our currently released community needs assessment reveal, Northeast Ohio is in dire need of the breast cancer education, screening, and survivor support that we help to provide. Ohio ranks 32nd in breast cancer incidence and fourth in mortality nationally. The $19 million Komen Northeast Ohio has raised over the past 18 years has been a critical resource helping to fight the battle against breast cancer in our community.

75% of the funds we raise remain in Northeast Ohio, going to fund local programs that make a difference in our community. 25% of the funds are designated for our national research programs. In fact, we’re the largest non-profit funder of breast cancer research outside of the federal government, with $610 million invested in our 30 years and touching every major advance in breast cancer research.

Once again, Komen Northeast Ohio does not fund Planned Parenthood and has no connection to embryonic stem cell research. Programs funded by Komen save lives.

We thank the many people who have spoken out in support of Komen Northeast Ohio, including The Plain Dealer reporter Connie Schultz. To read a copy of Ms. Schultz’s editorial, click here.

Our mission is to create a world without breast cancer, and we hope supporters like you will continue to join us in the fight.

Thank you again for your continued support.

On July 13th, 2011, the Ohio Senate passed House Bill 78. The bill will prohibit abortions after a fetus is determined to be "viable" by a doctor. There are no exceptions for rape, incest, fetal abnormalities, or any mental illness that the mother may be suffering from.

Speaking on behalf of the senators opposed to the bill, Senator Turner delivered the following remarks on the senate floor:

Senator Nina Turner:

Margaret Sanger, the famous reproduction rights activist, once said, "No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose whether she will or will not be a mother."

I don't know many people personally who are pro-abortion, but I do know people are pro-choice. Even the good lord gives us choice.

House Bill 78 seeks to take away that control. It seeks to take away choice. The state of Ohio should not be in the business of deciding a woman's right to choose.

This bill denies a women her individual rights, her civil rights, and her human rights to have control over her body and House Bill 78 is flat out wrong.

The bill not only rejects the constitutional rights of a woman's right to choose, but it does so in the most egregious situations.

Rape.

Rape. If a woman is raped.

Incest.

Fetal abnormalities and mental health.

I can tell you from personal experience that one of my sisters was raped, and thank God she was not impregnated but she was raped. But under this bill, she would not have had a right to control her own body.

Rape.

A woman should have a right to control her own body.

Within this legislation, there is choice, however, but it is not the woman's. It is up to a doctor to decide viability. It is up to a doctor to decide the physical state of the mother. It is up to the doctor to make the final determination if an abortion can occur.

You know it would be really, really, really, nice if we in the General Assembly cared as much about children once they are birthed as we do care about them when they are in the womb. Yet, due to budget cuts, and cuts to K-12 education, and cuts to higher education we have certainly proven otherwise.

I believe that the state of Ohio has staked it's claim as an anti-rights state. Denying the rights of workers through Senate Bill 5, seeking to deny the rights of voters through House Bill 159...

[Interruption from Senate President Tom Niehaus]

President Niehaus: Senator! Senator!

Senator Turner: ...and now we are trying...

President Niehaus: Senator Turner, please confine your comments to the bill at hand, please.

Senator Turner: Mr. President, they are. I'm talking about rights. Now we're trying to deny a woman's right to choose.

House Bill 78 is not a good bill. It denies a woman's right to choose.