Talk politics.

No, I'm serious, y'all, it really is. Maybe there is something to this "let the market decide" stuff. It surely has worked here (unless you hate Planned Parenthood, as many people do, in which case this is the free market trampling on the heads of little unborn babies, but whatever).

Brief recap for those in caves:

1. A "Pro-life" Republican in Congress initiates specious "investigation" of Planned Parenthood, ostensibly over allegations of wrongdoing, but really because he and his pro-life bosom buddies view PP as a tool of the devil.
2. Susan G. Komen for the Cure, famous for it's pink bombardment in support of breast cancer awareness, the annual "Race for the Cure" events, and for being a big corporate a$$hole about various thing, announced it was going to cease providing breast cancer screening grants to PP, citing some corporate policy or other that prevents them from being involved with organizations currently under government investigation.
3. The world goes guano loco, with pro-life people crowing about a major victory for the unborn, and pro-choice folks suddenly sprouting massive hate-boners the likes of which haven't been seen since Facebook announced it was forcing Timeline on everyone, accusing those mean patriarchal Republicans of yet again chipping away at women's rights. Immediately, a giant backlash ensued in the pro-choice world, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in support being given to PP, and support likewise withdrawn from Komen.
4. Today Komen issued what really looked like a half-assed "whoops!" and said they'd continue to support PP.

(And before anyone tells me that, as a man, I don't have a dog in this fight, I'd like to point out that Penny's sister, mother, and three aunts all had breast cancer, and that my father and his brother both had kidney cancer, which killed my dad. So, STFU.)

It would be one thing if PP were actually, seriously accused of financial wrongdoing. But the fact of the matter is, PP has been on the GOP pro-life wing's hit-list for decades, and, having been thwarted in the courts, having been unable to overturn Roe v. Wade and plunge American back into the glorious years of back-alley abortions, these jokers have taken to any means, however stupid and petty, to attack PP and other pro-choice organizations. I'm sure that the fanatics in the organized pro-life movement really do believe that PP is a truly evil entity, secretly run by a demonic secularist cult that gleefully celebrates every aborted baby as one more useless mouth that won't grow up to be Christian, that PP is run like the mafia and is involved in all manner of shady dealings and sinister machinations. (If this sounds unbelievable, you haven't spent much time around the organized pro-life movement. I have, and trust me, some of the things they believe make birthers and truthers look sane and rational.) But, no, PP isn't crooked, and it isn't unholy, and so individual Congressmen are forced to go on fishing-expedition crusades to satisfy their anti-abortion bloodlust.

The folks at Komen stupidly confused one person's ill-conceived vendetta with a genuine and serious government investigation, and made a dumb move. Said dumb move damaged, perhaps permanently, a brand already tarnished by the aforementioned ham-handed litigiousness and other legitimate criticism, and now they're in damage-control mode. But, like I said, I think this is an illustration of how the free market can work well. Apart from the GOP's "investigations," which sparked it, this is a war between private organizations and their individual supporters. In all the backlash I've been inundated with on Facebook, LJ, and real-world conversations (one of my good friends is a huge Komen supporter/activist and, Jesus, I think I have a perforated eardrum now) I've seen hardly any of the "there ought to be a law!" stuff you often see when private organizations act unwisely. Even the nutty pro-lifers I've talked to (ouch, my other ear!) haven't been, that I have seen, calling for more investigations; they've been praising the private sector's "right move" and calling for more private orgs to do as Komen did.

A private org acted. The market responded. The org reacted to the market. We'll see how the market responds now. Judging from the aforementioned ear-splitting clangor on Facebook and in real life, a lot of former Komen supporters are gone for good, stating that they don't want to be with an organization that "plays politics with women's health" (the fact that various pro-choice orgs play politics every bit as much as their pro-life counterparts apparently hasn't occurred to them).

But, man, I love American pluralism.