Clipboard: Komen executive Karen Handel resigns amid controversy over Planned Parenthood funding

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has posted the resignation letter submitted today by embroiled Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation executive Karen Handel. In it, Handel countered the heavy criticism the organization has faced since announcing last week that it would stop grant funding for breast cancer screening provided by Planned Parenthood. It reversed that decision days later. Handel also declined to accept a severance package. The letter reads, in part:

We can all agree that this is a challenging and deeply unsettling situation for all involved in the fight against breast cancer. However, Komen’s decision to change its granting strategy and exit the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood and its grants was fully vetted by every appropriate level within the organization. At the November Board meeting, the Board received a detailed review of the new model and related criteria. As you will recall, the Board specifically discussed various issues, including the need to protect our mission by ensuring we were not distracted or negatively affected by any other organization’s real or perceived challenges. No objections were made to moving forward.

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. However, the decision to update our granting model was made before I joined Komen, and the controversy related to Planned Parenthood has long been a concern to the organization. Neither the decision nor the changes themselves were based on anyone’s political beliefs or ideology. 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. I believe that Komen, like any other nonprofit organization, has the right and the responsibility to set criteria and highest standards for how and to whom it grants.

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post writes on the Wonkblog that the organization may have had a more difficult time recovering from the controversy had Handel kept her post.

Kliff reports that several former Komen employees told her that Handel influenced the decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood. She quotes former communications advisor John Hammerly as saying, “Questions about the issue of our involvement with Planned Parenthood significantly ramped up at the time Komen decided to hire Karen.”

Also, check out this story from National Public Radio about the role social media played in stoking the protest of Komen’s decision. Clay Shirky, a professor of New Media at New York University, says:

“You look at the Susan Komen thing and that took something like 48 hours to get them to reverse course on a fairly major decision. So, faster protests are different kinds of protests, in part because our emotions work much faster than our intellect. So, when you get people angry quickly, things can spread like wildfire, in a way that they can’t on slower media.”