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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Politics / The Ladies Lady-Hating Lady Resigns from Komen

Posted by Goldy on Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:14 AM

How bad was the public relations and political fallout from ~~Susan G. Komen for the Cure's~~ Pink Handguns, Inc.'s disastrous decision to pull Planned Parenthood funding, and subsequent reversal? Senior vice president (and former GOP gubernatorial candidate) Karen Handel, the woman who reportedly orchestrated the Planned Parenthood defunding, has resigned.

Good riddance.

But from the tone of her resignation letter, obtained by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Handel doesn't appear to be going quietly:

I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it. 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.

Handel has declined a severance package, which might have come with a gag order. She's scheduled to meet with reporters later today.

UPDATE: FYI, there's still time to win your very own "Feminist Killjoy" t-shirt! Just make a donation directly to Planned Parenthood, and then email your receipt to feministkilljoy@thestranger.com for a chance to win. Three winners will be chosen at random, Wednesday at noon.

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Comments (27) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Or, as I perhaps tastelessly posted in the open thread below, Komen loses a boob.

Posted by seatackled on February 7, 2012 at 8:19 AM

It's just a gesture by Komen, but I like gestures sometimes.

Posted by gloomy gus on February 7, 2012 at 8:21 AM

Prepare for Handel's upcoming victim tour on Fox News. She will be paraded around as yet another innocent victim of the evil, "liberal" media, George Soros conspiracy.

Posted by CC-Rob on February 7, 2012 at 8:22 AM

She's done her damage and is moving on to some other wingnut welfare position she has lined up.

Posted by Geocrackr on February 7, 2012 at 8:22 AM

I think you mean "former," not "from," eh?

Posted by Matt from Denver on February 7, 2012 at 8:24 AM

Mat @5, Yes, OS X Lion's iOS-like auto-correct, combined with my utter inability to proofread my own prose, has made my typo problem much worse.

Posted by Goldy on February 7, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Mitt Romney has said he supports Komen defunding breast screenings at Planned Parenthood. His position should be decried as anti-women and anti-life. And as another reason he does not deserve to be president.

Posted by Vince on February 7, 2012 at 8:32 AM

Goldy,
Did you read this?:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424…

Just a different take.

Posted by lark on February 7, 2012 at 8:32 AM

@7 I yelled 'fuck-you!' to Romney today. Of course, I was in my car and listening to him on the radio.

His comment was, roughly, that my taking a contraceptive provided by my work-place-provided-healthcare and the availability of "the morning after pill, but really it's an abortion pill" will impinge on his right to worship his golden calf.

Posted by Allyn on February 7, 2012 at 8:46 AM

@8 You're kidding, right?

The article describes Komen's decision as an attempt to "be neutral in the controversy over abortion" and "to extricate itself from the culture wars by discontinuing grants to Planned Parenthood."

Komen's actions were hardly neutral, and believe it or not, Planned Parenthood does a lot more than offer abortions. In fact, they tend to prevent them.

Posted by spaceapple on February 7, 2012 at 8:46 AM

@8: what does an article written by a guy who reviews movies supposed to mean?

Posted by Drew2u on February 7, 2012 at 8:50 AM

Brinker and Ari still need to be flushed from Komen.

KOMEN'S CORPORATE SPONSORS:

http://ww5.komen.org/CorporatePartners.a…

You know what to do.

Posted by judybrowni on February 7, 2012 at 8:51 AM

@8: 'Just a different take?' Yeah: the crazy-ass, crazy person take. Those two wingnuts completely missed the point; not even Komen went so far as to openly admit the defunding was related to the 3% of all services that PP provides.

And as 10/spaceapple points out, the family planning & birth control services they offer prevent many more abortions than they perform. I still don't understand how one can be anti-choice and oppose the use of birth control at the same time. Oxymoronic morons.

Posted by anti-wingnut on February 7, 2012 at 9:12 AM

How do these people even get into positions at places like Komen in the first place? Oh wait, she's a vaguely connected right wing political staple with no discernible medical qualifications:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Hande…

Posted by Joe Szilagyi

on February 7, 2012 at 9:30 AM

The decision to defund PP was vetted by the leadership of Komen and approved by the board with no objections.

It's not just that one person who caused this mess. The entire organization of Komen is rotten to the core.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on February 7, 2012 at 9:32 AM

@7: Romney doesn’t want the government or Komen to fund PP because of the abortion issue, not because PP provides breast exams. Here's the clip.

Similarly, the LGBT community doesn’t contribute to the Salvation Army because they help the homeless, but because of their discrimination against gays.

Romney didn't mention breast exams or mamagram referals at all.

It always prudent to check our rhetoric, as well as he rhetoric of our adversaries.

Posted by Phoebe in Wallingford on February 7, 2012 at 9:34 AM

@8:
What's your point???

Posted by Keekee on February 7, 2012 at 9:46 AM

Huzzah! Now here's hoping the whole org implodes and all that money can find it's way to much better run charities in the future.

Posted by OuterCow on February 7, 2012 at 9:46 AM

So she admits in her resignation letter that their defunding of PP was coming for a long time, she was hired on to make this decision, and they approved of her decision.

I'll save my cheering.

Posted by undead ayn rand on February 7, 2012 at 11:19 AM

@8: Apparently you linked an opinion page article without actually reading it.

It's the sort of raving that belongs at WorldNetDaily, they're not saying anything of substance. If I want the alternate "take" from antichoice zealots, I'll go to the crazyperson sites directly, or wait for Komen's latest pr spin.

Posted by undead ayn rand on February 7, 2012 at 11:45 AM

She probably is right that the entire leadership at Komen got on board with this idea and now are trying to save their own asses by throwing her under the bus.

But someone has to take the fall. Hope she's not the only one.

Posted by bigyaz on February 7, 2012 at 11:50 AM

Hey! She can shoot straight to the back of the line of Republican more-anti-choice-than-thou potential candidates. Exciting career ahead for this lady.

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on February 7, 2012 at 11:59 AM

@21: I think she just figured that it's time to get out now, while the iron is hot and the wingnut-welfare could propel her into a larger office.

Posted by undead ayn rand on February 7, 2012 at 12:14 PM

You keep mentioning the pink handgun thing, even though it has been de-bunked by plenty of news sources, who actually looked into the allegations before taking them at face-value

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-5…

Posted by rodlotter on February 7, 2012 at 12:56 PM

@24

Except that here's an archive for that page on Discount Gun Sales' site: http://www.discountgunsales.com/walther-…">http://web.archive.org/web/2010081901000…

That page was available on their site since at least October 2009: http://www.discountgunsales.com/walther-…">http://web.archive.org/web/2009101507185…

So, either Discount Guns has been selling a fraudulent item completely unauthorized by Susan G Komen for the last several years, or that line's complete bullshit.

Posted by bearseatbeats on February 7, 2012 at 1:40 PM

@25

OK, links got eaten by the commenting system. If this doesn't work, look it up yourself.

Right-click/copy link, then paste this: http://web.archive.org/web/2010081901000…
then this in same address bar (no spaces) and press enter: http://www.discountgunsales.com/walther-…

Same here: http://web.archive.org/web/2009101507185…
and here: http://www.discountgunsales.com/walther-…"

Posted by bearseatbeats on February 7, 2012 at 1:51 PM

@25: For a charity that sues nonlicensed "for the Cure" charities and ribboned items, they sure didn't have a problem with the gun shop's ad for months.

@24: It's not a Hoax but even if the dealer lied, they've certainly licensed enough questionable products.

http://www.disinfo.com/2010/04/kfc-bucke…
http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2011-10…

Posted by undead ayn rand on February 7, 2012 at 3:00 PM