James Taranto takes a look at the anger of Planned Parenthood and allies after Komen announced it was not renewing grants to the country's largest abortion provider:

The attacks are vicious, and in some cases vulgar. MoveOn.org is encouraging people to post on Facebook a graphic that states: "I stand with groups that don't screw over Planned Parenthood and 1,000's of women in the process. Sorry,Susan G. Komen, that means NOT you."

Slate's Amanda Marcotte, who was fired from John Edwards's presidential campaign over sexually explicit anti-Catholic blog posts, called the decision not to renew the grant "a shocking move" and "an act of cowardice"--though in truth, Komen will show itself to be rather brave if it does not back down amid the abuse it is now taking.

Planned Parenthood itself issued a press release in which president Cecile Richards declared: "We are alarmed and saddened that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation appears to have succumbed to political pressure." She described the Komen decision as "deeply disappointing and disturbing" and warned that it would "jeopardize women's health" unless other donors came forward.

They did. According to the AP report, Planned Parenthood raked in some $400,000 from 6,000 donors--around $67 each on average--within 24 hours. It was tactically savvy to turn a fund-raising disappointment into an opportunity, but we wonder if it might not have been a strategic mistake.

Planned Parenthood's bitter campaign against Komen--aided by left-liberal activists and media--is analogous to a protection racket: Nice charity you've got there. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it. The message to other Planned Parenthood donors is that if they don't play nice and keep coughing up the cash, they'll get the Komen treatment.

There's one crucial difference, however. In a real-life protection racket, the victim never pays voluntarily. The threat is present from the get-go. By contrast, Komen presumably was not under any duress when it made its grants--and it could have avoided all this nasty publicity by never dealing with Planned Parenthood in the first place.

Thus smart prospective donors--especially ones that are apolitical, like Komen--are getting the message that supporting Planned Parenthood is a trap. Give once, and you will give again--or else you will pay.

Read the entire "Best of the Web" piece on the WSJ site.