Karen Handel - Planned Bullyhood: The Truth Behind the Headlines about the Planned Parenthood Funding Battle with Susan G. Komen for the Cure

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Copyright 2012 by Karen Handel

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First Howard Books hardcover edition September 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Handel, Karen.

Planned bullyhood : the truth behind the headlines about the Planned Parenthood funding battle with Susan G. Komen for the Cure / Karen Handel.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. 2. Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. 3. Handel, Karen. 4. Birth control clinicsUnited StatesFinance. 5. BreastCancerUnited States. 6. Womens health servicesUnited StatesFinance. 7. Abortion servicesUnited StatesFinance. 8. Poor womenServices forUnited States. I. Title.

HQ766.5.U5H345 2012

363.9'60973dc23 2012022884

ISBN 978-1-4516-9794-0

ISBN 978-1-4516-9796-4 (ebook)

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This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever been bullied for doing the right thing. In standing up for what you believe, you might not endear yourself to some, but who cares, they dont define you; you do. Have faithGod has a plan, even if its a mystery to you.

Contents

On February 2, 2012, Andrea Mitchell of NBC interviewed the head of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Nancy Brinker. Komen is the worlds leading breast cancer organization, a highly regarded institution dedicated to breast cancer education and research with just one mission: to end breast cancer forever.

Nancy founded the organization in 1982 following the death of her sister, Susan G. Komen, from breast cancer. Before she died, Suzy made a request of her sister: do something about breast cancer. Nancy promised that she would and has dedicated her life to keeping that promise to her sister. Komen was born out of that promiseand today, Komens Race for the Cure and its pink paraphernalia are well-known to most Americans. Thanks to Nancy, dramatic progress has been made in the fight against this disease. Her efforts have literally saved the lives of tens of thousands of women.

And now Brinker was on the air, fighting for the organizations lifefor her lifes work.

Mitchell, an ardent liberal and breast cancer survivor, was enraged because Komen had decided in December to end its grants to Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Planned Parenthood, most in the media, liberal interest groups, and Democratic politicians said Komens decision was political. It was not; it was an economic onemade in the best interest of Komen and, more important, the women that Komen serves. In fact, Nancy had once been a member of a local Planned Parenthood board and was a former honoree of the organization. She had no ax to grind with Planned Parenthood. But Komen, like most nonprofits, was being affected by the economic downturn. Komens donors were demanding that grants be as effective as possible. Komens board of directors was insisting on real, measurable results and even higher standards of excellence. The grants to Planned Parenthoodabout $700,000 in 2011, or less than one-tenth of one percent of Planned Parenthoods $1 billion annual budgetwere not high-quality grants. Planned Parenthood didnt provide mammograms. Their educational programs were duplicative and there was virtually no way to determine what, if any, tangible, meaningful results were achieved. The decision to stop the Planned Parenthood grants had been months, even years, in the making.

Komens decision to transition out of the Planned Parenthood grantsto become neutral in the divisive debate on abortionunleashed a firestorm from the left. The left had decided that Republicans and conservatives were fighting a war on womenand, they said, Komen was part of that war. Never mind that Komens entire mission was breast cancernot politics, and certainly not abortion. People of every political belief and party had worn the pink shirts, walked with pink boas, and displayed the pink ribbons that have become synonymous with Komen and the fight against breast cancer. To Planned Parenthood and its opportunistic friends in the White House and Congress, daring to walk away would not be tolerated.

Planned Parenthood was women, according to those on the left. For Planned Parenthood, there was no such thing as neutral. You were either with them or against them. And anybody who didnt actively support Planned Parenthood was the enemy and had to be destroyedincluding a nonpartisan breast cancer foundation doing great work.

Mitchell had a special dog in this fight. Shes a major advocate for Planned Parenthood and calls it a noble organization. She and MSNBC had stacked the guest list that morning on behalf of Planned Parenthood. First, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards had appeared to announce that her organization was very shocked and really surprised by the decisionwhich struck me as less than genuine since they had known about the decision for weeks and the two organizations had agreed to share messaging and not go to the press. We believed we were working toward an amicable splitright up to the day Cecile deliberately lit the fuse with the media. Then Mitchell linked up Planned Parenthood allies Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) to do a postmortem.

Mitchell came out with both guns blazing. The storm has exploded, she chided Nancy. I have to tell you this is shocking for a lot of your longtime supporters. She then explained to Nancy that shed been at the gym that morning and was confronted by a woman who told her shed never wear a Komen T-shirt again. How could this have taken place? Mitchell demanded.

From the outset of the interview, it was clear: the media, the Obama administration, its Democratic allies in Congress, and Planned Parenthood were working together in a coordinated attack on Komen.

And thats when Andrea Mitchell mentioned my name.

The fact is, said Mitchell, a lot of people are tracing this back. My colleague, Lisa Myers, reporting last night on Nightly News, a lot of people are tracing this back to what some found [to be] the surprising hiring of Karen Handel, who ran for governor. Weve seen her statements and her strong support. She said when she was running for office, I am staunchly and unequivocally pro-life. Let me be clear, since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood. So, the question is, for a bipartisan organization such as yours, which has a broad-based advisory group, why hire a key staff person who is so strongly, fiercely identified against Planned Parenthood, one of your grantees?