The gutless Susan G. Komen Foundation announced the termination of its support for Planned Parenthood, allegedly due to the Komen Foundation's policy of not supporting organizations that are "under investigation," even bullshit ones that are nakedly political. Well, here's something Arizonans can do that is easy, effective, powerful, and as close to perfect as you're likely to find.
Arizona has long had a program of tax credits that permits taxpayers to take a dollar-for-dollar tax CREDIT (not a deduction) for contributions made to school tuition organizations and organizations that support the working poor. Trust me, it's not as good and noble as it sounds, since many of the tuition organizations actually use the money to send kids to religious schools. But, the beauty of it is that if you make a $200 contribution to an eligible organization, you get a tax credit, meaning that's $200 less that you have to pay to the state -- and thus $200 less that the right-wing lunatics who run our state legislature have to play with.
Last year, the legislature expanded the definition of eligible organizations, but very carefully drafted the legislation to exclude Planned Parenthood. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood went to court and a federal judge blocked the restriction against Planned Parenthood from being enforced. So now, Planned Parenthood is an eligible organization, and as its website says, "you may be eligible for a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit of up to $200 for an individual filer and up to $400 for a married couple filing jointly."
What this means is that you can now give hundreds of dollars to Planned Parenthood and (i) help it make up for the loss of support from the aforementioned gutless Susan G. Komen Foundation; (ii) use the very law that the Neanderthals (sorry, Neanderthals! no offense!) at the statehouse drafted to starve Planned Parenthood of necessary funding; and (iii) keep those very same hundreds of dollars out of the hands of our state leaders, whether of the finger-wagging-at-the-president variety or otherwise. You'll be sending a powerful message that says progressive causes are not to be excluded from tax treatment otherwise available to non-profits.
And it doesn't cost you a cent. You pay Planned Parenthood, you don't pay the state treasury. Wouldn't you trust Planned Parenthood to use the money more wisely than our solons like Eddie Farnsworth, Jack Harper, Ron Gould, and on and on and on? Yes, you would.
Whether you use money you otherwise would have spent on the Susan G. Komen 3-day, the Race for the Cure, or any of their other programs, is up to you.