The Goods

Jeffrey Goldberg:

But three sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process told me that the rule was adopted in order to create an excuse to cut-off Planned Parenthood. (Komen gives out grants to roughly 2,000 organizations, and the new "no-investigations" rule applies to only one so far.) The decision to create a rule that would cut funding to Planned Parenthood, according to these sources, was driven by the organization's new senior vice-president for public policy, Karen Handel, a former gubernatorial candidate from Georgia who is staunchly anti-abortion and who has said that since she is "pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood." (The Komen grants to Planned Parenthood did not pay for abortion or contraception services, only cancer detection, according to all parties involved.) I've tried to reach Handel for comment, and will update this post if I speak with her.

The decision, made in December, caused an uproar inside Komen. Three sources told me that the organization's top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board's decision to cut off Planned Parenthood. Williams, who served as the managing director of community health programs, was responsible for directing the distribution of $93 million in annual grants. Williams declined to comment when I reached her yesterday on whether she had resigned her position in protest, and she declined to speak about any other aspects of the controversy.

More at the link, including Komen internal memos.

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Comments

[gyma]

I'm wondering how long their corporate sponsors will stick around. If enough people are pissed off about this and start boycotting their products (which, btw, are extremely easy to pick out!) they might re-think.

Personally, I hope that's exactly what happens. I hope people start giving directly to PP and the ACS and SGK ends up defunct.

Maybe that would be a lesson for other organizations pandering to the nutters amongst us.

[spork_incident]

My guess is they'd survive just fine on "700 Club" viewer donations and Koch Brothers and Scaife grants.

The megacorps will only abandon them if enough people start yelling about this; I'm skeptical of that happening.

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