Last week, Susan G. Komen Foundation, the world’s largest breast cancer organization, abruptly announced it would no longer provide grant funds for breast screenings provided by Planned Parenthood.

The move would have halted financing to 19 of Planned Parenthood's 83 affiliates, which received nearly $700,000 from the Susan G. Komen Foundation last year – and have been receiving similar grants since at least 2005.

Planned Parenthood's affiliates provides about 770,000 women with breast examinations and pays for mammograms and ultrasounds for those who needed and could not afford further diagnostic services. While Komen Affiliates provide funds to pay for screening, education and treatment programs in dozens of communities, in some areas, the only place that poor, uninsured or under-insured women can receive these services are through programs run by Planned Parenthood.

In the wake of overwhelming protests against the move and en masse in-house resignations, the Foundation did an abrupt about face and announced funding would be restored.

What could be more important to an organization dedicated to eliminating breast cancer?

Answer: The politics and personal agendas of the organization's senior staff and board, both of which have been infiltrated by political ideologues and both of which were instrumental in a decision to deny further support from Komen affiliates to Planned Parenthood clinics that provide breast exams. In fact, it is now clear that some anti-choicers on Komen's board and senior staff are actually willing to sacrifice poor women to breast cancer to satisfy their own agendas.

When the dust settles, Komen will be a different organization with fewer supporters. By changing their mission and stepping into a political debate, their future will be written for them by others.

What were they thinking?