Komen executive quits, revealing role in dispute

ATLANTA – A vice president at Susan G. Komen for the Cure resigned Tuesday, saying the breast cancer charity should have stood by its politically explosive decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.

Karen Handel, a Republican who opposed abortion as a candidate for Georgia governor, said she was actively engaged in efforts to cut off the grants and said the charity’s reversal hurt its core mission.

“I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it,” Handel said in her letter. “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 grants, totaling $680,000 last year, went to breast-screening services offered by Planned Parenthood, which provides a range of women’s health care services including abortions. Under criteria developed by Komen during Handel’s tenure, Planned Parenthood would have been disqualified from future grants because it was under a congressional investigation launched at the urging of anti-abortion activists.

Komen reversed course after its decision ignited a three-day firestorm of criticism. Members of Congress and Komen affiliates accused the group’s national leadership of bending to pressure from anti-abortion activists.

“Neither the decision nor the changes themselves were based on anyone’s political beliefs or ideology,” Handel said in her resignation letter. “Rather, both were based on Komen’s mission and how to better serve women, as well as a realization of the need to distance Komen from controversy.”

Handel said the discussion had started before she arrived at the organization last year. She said the charity was concerned that some Roman Catholic Dioceses had encouraged believers not to give to Komen because it supported Planned Parenthood. Until Tuesday, Handel had publicly kept silent about her role in the dispute.

A person with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen’s headquarters in Dallas said last week that the grant-making criteria were adopted with the deliberate intention of targeting Planned Parenthood. The criteria’s impact on Planned Parenthood and its status as the focus of government investigations were highlighted in a memo distributed to Komen affiliates in December.

According to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, a driving force behind the move was Handel.