Planned Bullyhood: The Truth Behind the Headlines About the Planned Parenthood Funding Battle with Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Interesting and Informative

Politics is a messy business, and no one who ever engages in it escapes unscathed. Unfortunately, politics is increasingly becoming an integral part of all sorts of organizations and activities, many of which would at least on the surface seem non-political or non-controversial. This, it seems, has happened to one of the best-recognized and universally respected non-profit health awareness organizations in the world: Susan B. Komen. Komen fell victim to the ugly politics of the culture wars, and to the shameless bullying on the part of Planned Parenthood. Like most other non-profit organization Komen has been trying to make its granting process more streamlined and results driven, which invariably meant that many organizations – such as Planned Parenthood – would become ineligible for the continuing financial support. This created a huge backlash from the left-wing organizations and politicians, the consequences of which are still being felt to this day. At the center of this controversy was Karen Handle, former secretary of state of Georgia and Komen’s senior VP for public affairs. As one of the most prominent conservative and Republican members of Komen’s staff, she was made into the scapegoat and had felt compelled to resign her position. “Planned Bullyhood” is Karen’s attempt to set the record straight and clear up her reputation.

The opening chapter of the book is a brief biographical sketch of Karen’s life up to her hiring by Komen. It is a very interesting life story, filled with many personal and professional triumphs, as well as bitter disappointments. It is told straightforwardly without much embellishment. Even though she seems to have been a significant figure in Georgian politics for years, Karen is less known to the wider national audience. Karen presents herself as a strong and feisty person who is not easily intimidated. However, she also uses this part of the book to settle old scores with some of her former political opponents and rivals. Even though her account of her past political

The major pert of the book is dedicated, as is to be expected, to Karen’s experience at Komen. She goes into a great detail describing Komen’s operations and her own involvement in this organization. She also names many current and former Komen employees, senor staff, and affiliates who had been involved with the whole Planned Parenthood fiasco. This is a very revealing and informative book in its own right. It has provided me with a new level of insight into the operations of major organizations, their day-to-day activities, and the interplay of nonprofit, politics, and the media. This is probably one of the strongest features of this book.

The central point of this book is the following: Panned Parenthood’s reaction to the discontinuation of Komen’s funding has been premeditated, politicized, and designed to create the biggest positive negative impact on Komen. To any reasonable person who knows anything about the operations of Planned Parenthood this would not come as a surprise. That organization has become a major political force in its own right, and one of the pillars of the liberal and Democratic establishments. They are ruthless and disingenuous when it comes to dealing with all of their political opponents. Therefore all of the specific claims that Karen makes in her book are extremely plausible and ring true. Wherever it was possible Karen has tried to back her claims by links and citations of outside sources. Of cour

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book just solidified by thoughts about Planned Parenthood -

This book just solidified by thoughts about Planned Parenthood - not good. I thought that the author took the reader through the steps from the beginning, so that we could understand the process, and that it wasn't an attempt to hurt Planned Parenthood. There was a lot of repeating in the book, but that was another illustration of how the leaders of Komen would hash and rehash the situation and the reaction. This showed how Komen's decision was well thought out. I applaud the author for the courage to step out and challenge the 'dragon'.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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