One of the nation’s most prestigious prizes in medicine will go to Planned Parenthood. The idea is so egregiously political, one wonders if the prize is truly one based in scientific breakthroughs. Yet, it is. The Lasker Awards, announced by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation Wednesday, are a notable organization that often paves the way for the winners of the Nobel Prize; each Lasker prize comes with $250,000.

For perspective on how political the Lasker prize has suddenly become this year, another of the three winners were Dr. Douglas R. Lowy and Dr. John T. Schiller, honoring technological advances that helped develop the now-infamous human papillomavirus vaccines. Some of last year’s winners were the folks who discovered “the pathway by which cells from humans and most animals sense and adapt to changes in oxygen availability – a process essential for survival” and DNA replication.