State Komen Affiliate Opposed Planned Parenthood Ruling From The Start

NEW HAVEN (AP) ­— An official at the breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure says the Connecticut chapter never wavered when it came to funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

State board President Ann Hogan said February 3 that Connecticut’s chapter would not pull a $38,000 grant that ends in June for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, after The Associated Press reported January 31 that the charity was halting grants that Planned Parenthood affiliates used for breast exams and related services.

Those grants totaled $680,000 last year.

After being deluged with negative e-mails and online postings accusing Komen of knuckling under pressure to anti-abortion groups, a high-ranking official resigned February 7 from the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity.

Karen Handel, the charity’s vice president for public policy, told Komen officials she supported the move to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, though she said the discussion started before she arrived and was approved at the highest levels of the charity. A person with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen’s headquarters balked at the suggestion, however, saying Handel was a driving force behind the move to cut the funding.

Handel said in the letter the now-abandoned policy was fully vetted by the Komen organization. Its board did not raise any objections when it was presented with the proposed policy in November, Handel said.

Komen founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker said she accepted Handel’s resignation and wished her well. Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Andrea Hagelgans declined to comment on the resignation.

Planned Parenthood provides a range of women’s health care services including abortions, and Handel supported excluding the organization from future grants for breast cancer screenings because it was under congressional investigation.

The Komen charity cited a probe backed by anti-abortion groups and launched by Rep Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., to determine if Planned Parenthood improperly spent public money on abortions. A person with direct knowledge of decisionmaking at Komen’s headquarters in Dallas said 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 for fear of repercussions, a driving force behind the move was Handel, who was hired by Komen last year as vice president for public policy after losing a campaign for governor in Georgia in which she stressed her anti-abortion views and frequently denounced Planned Parenthood.

A longstanding law bans using federal money to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to protect the health of the mother. Planned Parenthood says taxpayer money is strictly separated.

A Dramatic Retreat

Komen’s dramatic retreat from the initial decision followed a three-day furor that resounded across the Internet, in Congress and — perhaps most tellingly ­— among Komen affiliates including Connecticut’s, which openly rebelled, suggesting the leadership had bowed to anti-abortion pressure.

An Aspen, Colo., affiliate also announced it would defy the new rules and continue grants to its local Planned Parenthood partner. The Aspen affiliate placed an ad in a local newspaper declaring that it would defy the national edict and continue grants to its Planned Parenthood counterpart.

All seven of Komen’s California affiliates also initially announced they “strongly opposed” the planned cutoff.

In addition, Komen was inundated with negative comments via e-mails, on Twitter and on its Facebook page with many of the messages conveying a determination to halt gifts to Komen — organizer of the popular Race for the Cure events — because of its initial decision.

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood was reporting an outpouring of donations, large and small, that totaled $3 million in the three days between when the decision to suspend funding was first announced, and when the plan was rescinded. Planned Parenthood said those funds would be used to expand its breast health services, which already provide nearly 750,000 breast exams each year.

Among those welcoming the Komen shift was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made a $250,000 donation to Planned Parenthood after the funding cutoff was announced.

Many other longtime Komen supporters were feeling conflicted after the initial decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding was announced. Some, depending on where they stood on the hot-button issue of abortion, called it more of a betrayal.

Alyce Lee-Walker was one of them. A longtime Komen supporter, she’d never given money to Planned Parenthood. But when she learned of the funding cut, she immediately went online to donate $188 — the 88 signifying good luck in Chinese.

She didn’t stop there. The small business owner from Pinehurst, N.C., went about removing all the pink-ribbon stickers, a Komen symbol, that she’d affixed to her belongings.

“I took them off my personal car, the business car, off the doors in the office,” she said. And that pink chef’s knife she bought at Williams-Sonoma, with some of the proceeds going to Komen? “I’m done with that, too,” she said.