by Karen Handel
The Truth Behind the Headlines about the Planned Parenthood Funding Battle with Susan G Komen for the Cure
Product Description
Publication Date: September 11, 2012
In 2011, Susan G. Komen for the Cure was growing weary of the "pink" being tarnished by its health grants to Planned Parenthood (PPH), whose many controversies were fueling backlash against Komen. They wanted to remove themselves from the pro-life/abortion debate and made what they thought was a rational, reasonable decision: to seek neutral ground in the culture war by severing ties with Planned Parenthood and, in turn, eliminate a major headache while opening a new, robust fundraising channel.
Karen Handel, the organization's senior vice president of public policy, was tasked with identifying options to disengage. In November, the Komen management and board decided to move forward. Komen and PPH made a "gentle ladies" pact, agreeing to part ways amicably and acknowledging that a media firestorm was in no one's best interest. Yet, six weeks later, PPH unleashed an attack so vicious and so seamlessly executed that it had to have been premeditated and precisely timed. The PPH attacked Komen against the backdrop of the Obama administration's clash with the Catholic Church over contraception. After just three days, following hysterical cries that "Komen was abandoning women," Komen capitulated and reversed course. Handel, a lifelong pro-life Republican who was raised Catholic, was immediately made the target. She resigned within days of Komen's reversal. Liberals called her a right-wing Trojan horse. The pro-life community hailed her as a hero. She insists she is neither.
Why did Planned Parenthood break its word? Was Komen simply a pawn in something bigger? In this book, Karen Handel finally speaks.
Product Details
- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Howard Books (September 11, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1451697945
- ISBN-13: 978-1451697940
- Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
