Handel writes in her book that Rove said Susan G. Komen should back down. | AP Photos Rove disputes claim on Komen

A book by a former official at Susan G. Komen for the Cure alleges that Karl Rove told the charity to reverse its decision to end its cancer screening funding of Planned Parenthood — raising eyebrows among conservatives who wanted Komen to stand firm amid the uproar.

Rove says it ain’t so — but he won’t say what part ain’t so.


The book by Karen Handel, the former Komen vice president who resigned after the charity restored funding to Planned Parenthood, says Komen CEO Nancy Brinker told her that Rove said the organization should back down.

The book, “Planned Bullyhood,” went on sale Tuesday and is already getting attention for its depiction of Rove’s role. Handel describes herself as “stunned” when Brinker told her about Rove’s advice:

“If we blink now, it’s over and no one will know what Komen stands for,” I implored.

Nancy’s reply stunned me. “Karen, I’ve talked to a lot of people. And even Karl says we have to backtrack. There’s just no other way.”

“Karl? Who’s Karl?”

She looked at me strangely as if I should know exactly who she was talking about. She said, “Karl Rove!”

Rove pushed back against the book Tuesday. Through his chief of staff, Sheena Tahilramani, Rove said Handel’s book is “not accurate.” But he wouldn’t say whether that means the whole episode never happened, or just that Handel didn’t describe it exactly the way it happened.

“He has no interest in elaborating,” Tahilramani told POLITICO in a brief phone interview.

The account provoked comments from conservatives who have been skeptical of Rove in the past.

“Ever had concerns about Karl Rove? Add this to the list,” RedState’s Erick Erickson tweeted Tuesday morning.

FreedomWorks’s Dean Clancy simply tweeted, “not surprising” — and “Mr. Rove, call your office.”

Komen is still struggling to rebuild after the firestorm surrounding the Planned Parenthood decision in February. Elizabeth Thompson left her position as president on Sept. 7, and Komen is currently searching for a new CEO. Once they’ve found one, Brinker will move from her position to become chairwoman of the Komen Board Executive Committee.

In her account, Handel never quite takes the blame for the funding cutoff. She writes that Komen was under pressure to back away from Planned Parenthood and that she was assigned to look for options — but that the final decision was up to Brinker and Thompson, then Komen’s president.

“Komen had been under fire about Planned Parenthood for years, and the heat was intensifying,” Handel writes. “As we explored our options to transition out of our relationship with Planned Parenthood, various possibilities were identified and evaluated. I was specifically tasked with identifying these possibilities.”

“In the end, however, the decision rested with Liz and Nancy, with the board’s agreement,” she writes.

Handel said she never heard serious objections to the funding change. At a Nov. 28, 2011, board meeting, she wrote, “several board members asked questions. However, not a single one raised concerns about or objected to moving forward with the strategy and supporting criteria as of Jan. 1.”

In a statement, Komen spokeswoman Andrea Rader said Handel’s book “contains the author’s personal recollections and views about the organization and its leadership. We won’t comment on her personal views or her memory of events. We are moving forward and we are completely focused on our mission to end breast cancer and help women worldwide.

“The record is well-known: Nancy Brinker and Susan G. Komen for the Cure have done more for women facing breast cancer than any other individual or organization,” Rader said.

In the book, Handel suggests that Komen officials thought that Planned Parenthood wouldn’t put up a fight over the funding decision — and blames Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards for setting off the media firestorm.

“We believed we were working toward an amicable split — right up to the day Cecile deliberately lit the fire with the media,” Handel writes.

Handel also suggests that Komen was under pressure from outside organizations to steer funds away from Planned Parenthood — including the bishops of the Catholic Conference of Ohio, who issued a statement to “direct Catholic parishes and schools away from fundraising for Komen for the Cure and toward activities and organizations that are fully consistent with Catholic moral teaching.”

“It was a public relations disaster and it was spreading across the country, one diocese to the next, and generating significant media coverage,” Handel writes.

Handel still insists, however, that Komen never actually cut off Planned Parenthood. She sticks to the official line Komen used at the time — that it just changed the eligibility criteria for funds. Under the new rules, she writes, “Planned Parenthood would be ineligible for the time being … but it would not be permanently ineligible.”

“Komen was never ‘cutting off’ the Planned Parenthood grants. That was nothing more than Planned Parenthood propaganda,” she writes.

Early reports on the Rove comments appeared early Tuesday in Lifenews.com and the Daily Caller.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:01 a.m. on September 11, 2012.