Huffington Post has learned from a Komen insider that it was indeed Karen Handel who pushed for severing ties with Planned Parenthood and who originated the idea of creating this new policy about "investigations" as a way of obscuring the real reason.
For anyone who hasn't been following this, Karen Handel ran unsuccessfully for governor of Georgia in 2010. One of her campaign promises had been to end the state's grants to Planned Parenthood if she became governor. She was named Senior Vice President for Public Policy at the Komen Foundation last year.
The inside source told HP that Komen has been under pressure from anti-abortion donors and right wing groups for years but that Handel racheted up the rhetoric. "It was apparent to everyone in the organization that Karen was doing everything in her power to defund Planned Parenthood," was quoted as saying.
"Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with investigation criteria. . . .She said, 'If we just say it's about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.'"
HP reports having been shown emails between Komen officials that confirm that Handel had the sole "authority" in crafting the policy, which she presented to the leadership in November. It was approved by the Board in December, resulting in the immediate resignation of one Board member who was the top public health official.
When will public officials learn? Especially in the digital age -- the cover-up of bad deeds will always be what gets you in trouble.
Of course, there's more blame to go around than just of Handel. First of all, the Komen leadership hired her; and then they approved her plan that was designed specifically as a way to defund PP. And they knew that.
It hurts Komen immensely to have this political hot potato tarnish its good image and to undermine its good works. They should have stood firm on the facts that none of the money from Komen went to PP's abortion activities. But that's never good enough for the right-wingers. They want to wipe out the whole PP organization, even though only 6% of their work is abortion-related. Just the way they got rid of ACORN.
The other lesson to learn here is just how pervasive the anti-abortion forces have become and the tactics they are employing to ultimately make abortion illegal again.
Ralph
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