"If we just say it's about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political."
That's what Komen for the Cure's Vice President of Public Policy Karen Handel told staff when she led the organization to defund Planned Parenthood's grants -- a decision that has been at least temporarily reversed as of Friday. But Handel is still the top policy-maker for the organization, and according to reports isn't sorry about the fallout caused by her decision -- in fact, according to sources who spoke with Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post, she fought the reversal every step of the way.
For added context: Handel previously ran for governor of Georgia on a platform of defunding Planned Parenthood. And not only did Handel pledge to end funding for Planned Parenthood when she ran for governor, just last week in the middle of the firestorm around Komen's decision to cut them off, she took to social networks to slam Planned Parenthood. She obviously doesn't have the judgment to be making decisions about policy for an organization that has the potential to help so many women.
According to Komen staffers, Handel has been looking for excuses to gut Planned Parenthood's funding for the last six months -- trumping up right-wing campaigns targeting the group for its support of Planned Parenthood and aggressively lobbying the board to cut funding to Planned Parenthood clinics.
Last week was a big week -- millions of us banded together and demanded that Komen for the Cure reverse its decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. And we were heard: On Friday Komen for the Cure reinstated this year's grants to Planned Parenthood. But it's not over. Handel's continued presence as a leader at Komen threatens to undo all of the work they do on behalf of women and breast cancer awareness -- even if the effectiveness of that work is under legitimate scrutiny.
Handel created the investigation policy solely to facilitate her agenda to cut off Planned Parenthood and fought the decision to reverse that policy up until the very last second. People are rightly outraged that Handel is still in such a senior role at Komen and Komen is facing pressure from inside and outside the organization to force her to resign.
When life-saving care for hundreds of thousands of low-income women is on the line, Komen needs to prove to a skeptical public that it will put women's health above all else. As long as Handel is there, we can't believe that politics isn't getting in the way of that important mission.
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"If we just say it's about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political."
Was she trying to further her career by this move??
SGK needs to huddle, pull together the tattered remains of their demoralized board and senior leadership and determine who they are...
if they are "for" research, prevention and education, not only does Handel need to leave, but I suspect others as well, along with an "attitude adjustment" on the part of senior leadership......and Ari Fleisher, best bud of the CEO,needs to disappear into his rat-hole never to be seen again, overtly or covertly.
if they are now a political right to life advocacy group in a left handed way, they need to announce their intentions, promote handel, hire a new PR, create new advertising, and watch folks walk, not for Komen, but away, Far, far away.....
Politicizing disease is rare, but does happen..... Here, we have an organization that seeks to politicize on the basis of women's cancer cure, treatment and prevention. what a way to loose one's way
They have been outed!
++++++++++++++++
That's from CharityNavigator.org. SGK pays it's CEO & President $5 million a year, now that may be a paltry sum compared to what is donated to them, but they no longer finance breast cancer screenings for the uninsured. That's what their donations to PP were for. SGK only uses 25% of their donations for breast cancer programs and serrvices, the rest is for admin costs.
. Certainly not pocket change, but a factor of 10 is significant. There are enough things wrong with SGK to not jump on incorrect data - there's enough correct data out there to lambaste them from here to the Moon and back......
The number of $5M has been floating around since some blogger cited it on another internet website
Only a drop of the thousands of dollars women raised for Komen went to anything other than their self promotion and personal pampering. It is not just a percentage- the bulk of their funds go to "awareness" which means self promotion. Give wisely, ladies.
We have seen the (wo)man behind the curtain.
SGK is a SuprerPac in a pink ribbon.
Nothing more.
We can give directly to PP, or any cancer research center, and avoid the middle (wo)man. They serve no useful purpose. They are a middle (wo)man, sucking a percentage off of the good intentions of their donors.
Not any longer.
That organization needs to be isolated and ignored.
Try to give to someone else. Give directly. No money should be given to organizations like this that choose to politicize themselves, unless you favor their particlar brand of politics. But then, they shouldn't be tax-exempt...
Is insanity THAT ingrained in this country???
Explosive new reports show that Karen Handel, Komen for the Cure’s Senior Vice President of Policy was the architect of the push to defund Planned Parenthood. Even more disturbing is that she crafted the “investigations” policy just for the purpose of cutting off Planned Parenthood. Handel has shown that she's willing to put politics ahead of women's lives and her continued presence on Komen’s leadership team threatens to tarnish all of their good work on behalf of breast cancer awareness.
Now pressure for Handel to resign is mounting. Will you join us in letting Komen know that Handel needs to go?
Our message to Komen's CEO, Nancy Brinker:
“Karen Handel has proven that she’s willing to play politics with women's lives and her presence at Komen for the Cure endangers all of the good work the organization does on behalf of breast cancer awareness. Karen Handel must be removed for her role in the decision to defund Planned Parenthood.”
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/Handel/?akid=10.78114.lwWn6k&page=19&rd=1&t=2