BU students react to Komen official’s resignation decision

Amidst Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s public debacle concerning Planned Parenthood, executive Karen Handel resigned on Tuesday.

“The controversy related to Planned Parenthood has long been a concern to the organization,” Handel said in a letter sent to Komen CEO Nancy Brinker and publicized by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Handel, Komen’s vice president of public policy, said in the letter that the earlier decision to cease funding for Planned Parenthood was not based on political beliefs.

Handel also said this is a challenging and “deeply unsettling situation” for people in the fight against breast cancer.

“However, Komen’s decision to change its granting strategy and exit the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood and its grants was fully vetted by every appropriate level within the organization,” she said.

Handel recalled a board meeting last year in which they discussed “the need to protect our mission by ensuring we were not distracted or negatively affected by any other organization’s real or perceived challenges.”

She also said she was disappointed by the “gross mischaracterizations” of the funding strategy and her involvement in it.

Handel ran for governor of Georgia in 2010 as a Republican candidate against funding for Planned Parenthood.

In the third statement issued this week, Brinker said Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s mission is the same today as it was upon its founding – to cure and eradicate breast cancer.

“We have made mistakes in how we have handled recent decisions and take full accountability for what has resulted,” Brinker said, “but we cannot take our eye off the ball when it comes to our mission.”

Brinker said she and Handel shared the commitment to the organization’s mission, and she wishes Handel the best in her future endeavors.

Students at Boston University’s Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism said they approve of Komen’s decision to fund Planned Parenthood again.

“Reproductive justice is every woman’s issue and it’s important that organizations that claim to support women support all aspects of women’s health,” said BU College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Sasha Goodfriend, the activism coordinator.

Goodfriend said she is glad the organization decided to give funding back to Planned Parenthood because the organization needs all the funding it can get.

CAS freshman Kelsey Smith said the decision to fund Planned Parenthood was definitely a public relations move, but since it is going to Planned Parenthood she really cannot argue with it.

While there is some loss of credibility to the foundation, Smith said, it will be able to recuperate.

“They’ll find somebody better that agrees with all of the feelings they have about different decisions,” Smith said, “whether it’s Planned Parenthood or other issues that the foundation goes through.”