Friday, December 14, 2012
Scandal Karen Handel accuses Planned Parenthood of wrapping themselves in a pink 'cloak of legitimacy'
Posted by Max Blau @maxblau on Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Karen Handel lashed out against Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards yesterday, ten months after stepping down from her executive role at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.
The former Georgia secretary of state and one-time GOP gubernatorial candidate, who some have speculated will challenge U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss in 2014, defended Komen's controversial decision to pull grants from Planned Parenthood in a discussion with the Family Research Council.
"Planned Parenthood counted on conservative elected officials to be quiet, and they were silent," Handel said. "But they didn't count on me. Cecile Richards has absolutely no idea who she's picked a fight with, folks."
Despite Handel's forced resignation in early February, she has refused to back down against Planned Parenthood in subsequent months. The former non-profit executive recently published a book, titled Planned Bullyhood, in which she refers to non-profit as "a bunch of schoolyard thugs." She continued her attack on Thursday.
"Public scrutiny around Planned Parenthood was really growing ... so [they] decided to make mammograms and that they were a primary deliverer of health services one of their key messages," she said. "They literally co-opted the color pink, and for most people the color pink is associated with the fight against breast cancer. Their website, everything they did was pink, pink, pink, wrapping themselves in what I like to call a cloak of legitimacy."
Planned Parenthood spokesman Eric Ferrero said in an email to the Huffington Post:
It is hard to believe that there are people who still want to inject politics into women's preventive health care like breast cancer detection and treatment. Planned Parenthood is proud of our work to help detect breast cancer, and our focus is always on the patients who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers for this lifesaving care.
We're not really sure why Handel is still making these kind of remarks regarding a controversy that has died down. Maybe she's adamant about setting the record straight. Or perhaps she's just biding her time until the 2014 U.S. Senate race. Either way, it doesn't seem like Handel wants to bury the hatchet with Planned Parenthood anytime soon.
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