Former Susan G. Komen Vice President Karen Handel's new book released today, Planned Bullyhood, reports on Planned Parenthood's orchestrated shakedown of the breast cancer group, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, in February 2012. Handel explained that Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards spent weeks organizing what Handel called "one of the most contemptible acts of coordinated bullying in modern American political history."
Richards' allies included the Obama administration, abortion enthusiasts in the Big Media (including MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell), 26 U.S. senators (25 Democrats, one independent), the highest levels of the Democratic National Committee (including Debbie Wasserman Shultz) and others. Handel said the tyrannical left was unified in its overt preference for Planned Parenthood over the best interests of Komen and women's health.
Handel provided evidence suggesting some Komen insiders and even Democratic commentator and lobbyist Hilary Rosen - Komen's adviser at the public relations agency, SKDKnickerbocker - may have leaked information to Planned Parenthood.
Komen founder Nancy Goodman Brinker had once served on a Planned Parenthood's advisory board in Texas. Despite the long friendship between the two organizations and millions of dollars given to Planned Parenthood during the last two decades, Cecile Richards ruthlessly back stabbed her Komen friends, even after having promised not to create a firestorm. Richards threatened Komen's financial well-being by urging corporate and individual donors to stop giving to the breast cancer group.
Komen's 2011 grants - allegedly intended for education and breast cancer screening - totaled $680,000. Komen executives considered the grants "low quality" and of poor service to women because Planned Parenthood only provided manual breast exams. It referred women elsewhere for mammograms, and the results weren't measurable.
Handel argued that Komen's "ill-timed decision" to stop the grants coincided with a political decision inside the Obama administration. In order to win the women's vote, the administration created a smokescreen to conceal its "abysmal economic record" and the particularly adverse impact of unemployment on women.
The Obama administration, she said, concocted the "trumped up" war on women to distract the public from its difficulties with Catholic voters resulting from its mandate requiring employers to purchase insurance providing women with free sterilizations, (cancer-causing) hormonal contraceptive steroids and chemical abortions. The administration conveniently "put Komen at the center of the 'war on women'."
Many people had objected to Komen's grants over the years because Planned Parenthood sells women cancer-inducing abortions and hormonal contraceptive steroids (i.e. the birth control pill and Depo Provera birth control) and because it was possible for Planned Parenthood to re-direct Komen's funds to the abortion side of its business. Handel, however, claimed Komen's relationship with Planned Parenthood was unrelated to abortion. She wrote:
"Our dealings with Planned Parenthood also had nothing whatsoever to do with abortion, although those of us at Komen National were surprised to learn that, in some of the community grants - and contrary to previous Komen statements - dollars were going to general administrative costs."
Handel said there is a second, significant issue that should be of concern - Planned Parenthood's "tax-guzzling agenda." Planned Parenthood has a "vested interest" in seeing Democrats win the White House, she wrote, because "millions of dollars in existing government funding and robust new streams of government dollars were at risk" (probably as a result of ObamaCare). Tax dollars totaling nearly $1.5 million per day are directed to Planned Parenthood's non-profit organization. Planned Parenthood's non-profit organization can legally give millions to its political pac as a gift. Those funds are used to elect politicians that will vote to give Planned Parenthood more tax dollars and support its billion-dollar-a-year business. The abortion behemoth also uses the funds to defeat political candidates who either oppose its agenda or refuse it further taxpayer money. Handel reported that in 2004, Democrats were the recipients of 95% of Planned Parenthood's pac spending. In 2008, Democrats received 99% of its pac spending.
Handel learned there was support for Planned Parenthood within some Komen affiliates, and she heard anti-Republican and anti-Catholic sentiments expressed. Some called her "righty-tighty" for having run as a one-time Republican candidate for governor of Georgia.
After the Catholic bishops conference in Ohio issued a statement in 2011 "to direct Catholic parishes and schools away from fundraising for Komen and toward activities and organizations" that were "fully consistent with Catholic moral teaching," Handel said she heard several references made about those "Crazy Catholics" and "nutty right-wingers."
It took only three days of hammering from the abortion lobby before Komen's founder Nancy Goodman Brinker capitulated to Planned Parenthood and agreed to continue giving the abortion provider what Komen's leaders had called "low quality" grants.
Komen's public relations adviser, Hilary Rosen, cheered Planned Parenthood's victory. According to Handel, she "retweeted something from Nancy Pelosi. Here's what Pelosi tweeted:
"'When women speak out, women win - Komen decision to continue funding Planned Parenthood is a victory for women's health.' A few minutes later, Rosen (@hilaryr) had tweeted herself: 'Congrats to Susan G. Komen for the Cure....No room for politics in fighting cancer."
The Komen-Planned Parenthood debacle provides a lesson for all corporate and non-profit leaders who are considering giving Planned Parenthood grants. Like the mafia, once you're in, you are expected to continue paying for life. Handel encouraged corporate leaders threatened with a shakedown not to capitulate to bullies, like Planned Parenthood, and to stand their ground, just as AT&T had done so in 1990 when it stopped funding the abortion behemoth.
The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women's organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.
Contact: Karen Malec
Source: Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
