Skip to footer

Komen official behind Planned Parenthood funding flap leaves

The Susan G. Komen vice president, who pushed to stop funding Planned Parenthood, stepped down from the breast cancer charity Tuesday. Komen founder Nancy Brinker said "We have made mistakes."

|
(AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
Karen Handel, executive with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity, announced her resignation as vice president for public policy Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012..
  • By David Morgan Reuters

| Washington

A senior executive of the breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure has resigned after a public outcry over the group's decision to cut funding to women's health organization Planned Parenthood.

Karen Handel, a Republican who once ran for governor of Georgia on a platform calling for defunding of Planned Parenthood, stepped down from her role as the top U.S. breast cancer charity's senior vice president for public policy and chief lobbyist, the organization said on Tuesday.

"I have known Karen for many years, and we both share a common commitment to our organization's lifelong mission, which must always remain our sole focus," Komen founder Nancy Brinker said in a statement. "I wish her the best in future endeavors."

RELATED: Where GOP candidates stand on abortion and other social issues

Komen's move last week caused an uproar among supporters who also back Planned Parenthood, a provider of birth control, abortion and other health services. Komen reversed the decision on Friday.

Many had accused Komen of bowing to political pressure from anti-abortion groups. The charity says its move was guided by a new policy to not fund organizations under investigation by U.S. authorities.

"We have made mistakes in how we have handled recent decisions and take full accountability for what has resulted," Brinker said on Tuesday. "We must learn from what we've done right, what we've done wrong and achieve our goal for the millions of women who rely on us."

Planned Parenthood is subject to a probe by Republican Representative Cliff Stearns. Komen funds about $700,000 in breast cancer exams and mammography referrals for poor women provided by Planned Parenthood.

Komen insiders have said Handel spent months pushing the plan to shift the organization's grant strategy, leading the board to decide to cut off funding for 17 of the 19 Planned Parenthood affiliates in December.

Handel, who was hired last April as Komen's policy director and chief lobbyist in Washington, maintained that the strategy and the board's decision did not involve abortion politics.

"I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it," she said in a letter to Brinker, dated Feb. 7.

"I openly acknowledge my role in the matter and continue to believe our decision was the best one for Komen's future and the women we serve."

The Komen board's decision retained $250,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood, including the organization's three largest grants to the network of women's health clinics. (Editing by Michele Gershberg and Eric Beech)

RELATED: Where GOP candidates stand on abortion and other social issues

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Komen official behind Planned Parenthood funding flap leaves
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0207/Komen-official-behind-Planned-Parenthood-funding-flap-leaves
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe