Karen Handel resigned as the Susan G. Komen Foundation's vice president for public policy on Tuesday in the wake of the charity's disastrous defunding of Planned Parenthood and since she isn't taking a severance package, she's free to talk to the media. Today, she told the Daily Beast, "The idea that anyone would suggest Komen had a political agenda is absurd."
Komen reeled from the criticism over the defunding decision: Its founder and president Nancy Brinker tried to convince the media that the move had nothing to do with politics (though the reasoning for stopping the grants for breast cancer-prevention programs was over a House investigation, led by a pro-life Republican, into Planned Parenthood's funding) and Komen eventually reversed its decision.
Handel continued to insist that politics—and her pro-life views—had nothing to do with the decision, telling the Daily Beast, "Komen is a breast-cancer organization—that’s what it does." She said that Planned Parenthood had "unleashed Armageddon" via social media, "Planned Parenthood is a gigantic bully, using Komen as its own personal punching bag." Handel claims that there was a "ladies' agreement" between Komen and Planned Parenthood not to go to the press about the defunding, and Komen would still consider Planned Parenthood for different grants:
“We wanted a smooth transition,” she continued. “What happened is nothing short of a disgrace. Cecile Richards put this issue in the press. There was a coordinated effort to get sites like moveon.org and change.org involved. There was an orchestrated, premeditated attempt to put this issue in the press. Talk about betrayal by Planned Parenthood—against an organization that took up for it for years.”
...In explaining the decision-making process at Komen, Handel said, “It’s no secret that for some years—long before my time—Komen was dealing with a controversy regarding Planned Parenthood grants. The issue would flare up, then die down, then flare up again. It was fairly cyclical. But over the summer, it intensified. More donors said they were pulling out. The issue was ratcheting up. It wasn’t dying down.
“Two dozen Catholic bishops were saying not to support Komen,” she continued. “We needed to find some options for moving to neutral ground. I was tasked with doing that.” She added, “An inordinate amount of staff time was spent trying to manage the controversy. We should be able to focus on our own mission and not be distracted by the controversy of another organization.”
Planned Parenthood said that anti-choice organization reported the news of the defunding first. Handel said, "Planned Parenthood launched a vicious attack on a nonprofit organization that fights breast cancer... Komen gave out $93 million in community grants last year. Planned Parenthood got $680,000—less than 1 percent of the total granting portfolio. They unleashed Armageddon on an organization for $680,000."
Handel, who expressed her distaste for Planned Parenthood during her failed 2010 Georgia gubernatorial campaign, had been described as not pro-life enough.
