February 2, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a tense exchange with MNSBC’s Andrea Mitchell Thursday, the founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure explained that her group stopped funding Planned Parenthood because the abortion organization doesn’t actually provide cancer screenings, but simply refers patients to other clinics.

While extreme vitriol has been aimed at the breast cancer foundation following the news of their decision this week, Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker says the decision was simply the result of putting “metrics, outcomes, and measures” to their grants for better use of funds. Mitchell objected, questioning Komen’s possible political motivations, pointing out that Komen’s grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening “have nothing to do with any contraceptive or abortion counseling.”

“That’s not the issue, because that’s not our issue,” Brinker replied. “Our issue is grant excellence. [Planned Parenthood clinics] do pass-through grants with their screening grants: they send people to other facilities. We want to do more direct service grants.”

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Komen indicated this week that Planned Parenthood has also lost funding because it is under federal investigation. But the CEO also said that the group is, in point of fact, “not defunding Planned Parenthood” completely, at least not yet. “We have three grants that will go on this year, and they will probably be eligible for the next grant cycle,” she said.

When questioned whether the blowback from Planned Parenthood supporters was worth it, Brinker said that the real impact on the foundation has been just the opposite.

“The responses we’re getting are very, very favorable,” she said. “People who have bothered to read the material, who have bothered to understand the issues - again, we work for mission every day of our lives.” The Daily Caller reported Thursday that Komen for the Cure’s donations have doubled in the past two days.

Although Planned Parenthood often used its role in cancer prevention to argue against the rash of state funding cuts last year, undercover investigations found the claim that it is heavily involved in cancer screening practically baseless.

After Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards in March cited “mammograms” as one of the group’s services, a Live Action investigation found that none of the 27 Planned Parenthood clinics they contacted in 30 states provided the breast cancer screening.

When Planned Parenthood funding was targeted in Indiana, a similar investigation debunked its claims as a major Medicaid provider to low-income Indiana residents.