If it wasn't, Komen wouldn't have hired Karen Handel, former GOP candidate and fierce opponent of abortion and Planned Parenthood.
[link:http://jezebel.com/5881642/|
Meet the Komen Exec Behind the Planned Parenthood Defunding]
Now, it turns out that people from inside Komen confirm that the decision was a political one, and the politics of Komen are swinging wildly to the right thanks to the metastasized ideology of Karen Handel, former Mama Grizzly, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, and longtime anti-Planned Parenthood crusader.
Komen's official line on the reason for cutting off funds to Planned Parenthood was a newly-instituted rule that declared that the organization was not to give funds to organizations under investigation at the local, state, or federal level. According to Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic, former employees of Komen told him that the rule was, in fact, designed to single out Planned Parenthood. The former employees told Goldberg that Karen Handel was behind the new rule, which was instituted in December. Employees of Komen also told Goldberg that Handel and her cronies saw the Planned Parenthood Congressional investigation as an opportunity to finally end Komen's relationship with the family planning organization.
This isn't to say that people with strong political opinions shouldn't be able to work in non-political arenas and without their opinions being held against them. But Karen Handel was asked to work at a high level position in an organization that deals with women's bodies and women's health after proving herself incapable in the public arena of separating women's bodies and politics. It was a bad hire for Komen, and now it's a Public Relations nightmare.
Komen's brand is imploding and seriously alienating young women and politically progressive supporters who were drawn to the cause expressly because of their non-political approach to a non-political disease. But when a charity hires a woman like Handel, a woman who must always attach politics to a woman's body, and allows her to project her political beliefs into her work, Komen ceases being a viable charity and starts being a self-righteous political organization for rich ladies who like hanging around with celebrities. It's a social club, and the only thing it's curing right now is people's desire to raise any more money for them.
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