Komen VP 'Disingenuous' in Resignation Explanation

Yesterday Karen Handel, Vice President of Public Policy for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, submitted her resignation.

It is fairly disingenuous of Handel to state that SGK’s decision to cut off funding to
the Planned Parenthood Breast Health Fund was not “based on anyone’s political
beliefs or ideology” when she openly concedes in her previous sentence that “the
controversy related to Planned Parenthood has long been a concern to the
organization.”

The controversy to which Handel alludes is the decades old campaign against Planned Parenthood by persons and entities opposed to reproductive freedom. Even though not a penny of any grant money from SGK was used by Planned Parenthood except for the purpose for which those funds were earmarked—that is, to promote breast health for both women and men—SGK announced that it would make no further grants to the Breast Health Fund.

Neither SGK or Handel explained how barring future funding to the Breast Health Fund would have "better serve[d] women" or would have "deliver[ed] even greater community impact." In fact, just the opposite would have been true as already underserved communities would have been denied critical breast health services.

This decision ignited a firestorm of outrage that ultimately resulted in SGK announcing that it would consider the Breast Health Fund to be eligible to receive future funding to provide breast cancer screening for women and men. The outpouring of support for the Planned Parenthood Breast Health Fund also resulted in Handel’s exit from SGK.