Travis Long - 2011 NEWS & OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
Participants in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure run at Raleigh's Meredith College last June.
Planned Parenthood agencies in North Carolina say they have experienced an outpouring of support since the Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced it will no longer fund the group.
"People are really angry and disappointed in Komen," said Paige Johnson, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina.
Patty Dillon, the North Carolina field coordinator with Planned Parenthood Health Systems in Raleigh, said, "We're disappointed as an organization that Komen has allowed politics to intervene with the provision of health for women who need it in our community."
Komen said in a statement that its decision has nothing to do with politics. Inquiries made to the Triangle Susan G. Komen office were referred to the national office, which would not comment further.
Johnson said her organization last received a Komen grant in 2003, which was used for education and outreach for early detection of breast cancer. Dillon said her office got a Komen grant in 2009 that enabled it to provide breast health care for 466 women.
Planned Parenthood has clinics in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Asheville, Winston-Salem and Greensboro.
Johnson said the organization saw a similar show of support last year when the state legislature tried to bar it from receiving funds.
"Whenever big organizations attack Planned Parenthood, people come out and support us," Johnson said. "For many women, when they were young and in college, this is the place they came for birth control. And when they got their first job and didn't have health insurance, they came to us for Pap smears. They rely on Planned Parenthood early and when these things happen, they remember us."
