Karen Handel, the controversial former Komen Foundation executive who resigned on Tuesday morning hit Fox News in the afternoon to defend Komen’s cuts to Planned Parenthood.
If the cancer charity is hoping to draw a line under the firestorm, then it doesn’t seem the manner of Handel’s departure will necessarily help. Although she attracted intense media interest in the days following the decision, with many speculating that she played a large role in the move, her interview, much like her resignation letter, left many questions dangling for the charity.
Speaking with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Handel said that Planned Parenthood had tried to turn Komen’s decision into a political affair.
“The only group that made this political is Planned Parenthood,” Handel said, claiming that no organization should face pressure over grant-making decisions. She then went on to explain that the Komen Foundation had been under pressure from pro-life groups over their association with Planned Parenthood, including pressure because of the Congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood. “It’s no secret, Megyn, Komen and other organizations funding Planned Parenthood had been under pressure long before my time that had been going on, the pressure around the controversy…this organization had a right to make what it felt was the best decision for the mission.”
As in her resignation letter, Handel argued that Komen had wanted for a long time to distance itself from “controversy” associated with Planned Parenthood. Handel referred specifically to the investigation launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) late last year, although that investigation started after Handel joined Komen in the spring of 2011.
Handel’s position therefore seems to be attribute at least some of the decision to pressure from pro-life groups to dissociate with Planned Parenthood because they provide abortions: “There is this kind of controversy, Komen was doing its best to move to more central ground. I was asked to look at options. I looked at it and I did,” she told Fox News.
Part of the argument between Komen and those attacking the charity comes down to how they are defining “political.” Handel — and Komen — say their decision was not political because it was not based on ideology: they were just making a practical move to distance themselves from controversy. Conversely, Planned Parenthood’s defenders argue that it is inherently political to give ground to a political movement in order, as Handel put it, to “move to more central ground.”
Pema Levy
Pema Levy is a News Writer at TPM covering the 2012 election. Before coming to TPM, Pema was an assistant editor at The American Prospect where she wrote about politics and the economy.
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