Archive for the 'Breast Cancer' Category

Karen Handel’s Komen Resignation of the Day: The fallout from Susan G. Komen’s now-reversed decision to end its breast-cancer screening partnership with Planned Parenthood continues, as controversial Komen exec Karen Handel — who served as the charity’s vice president for public policy — tendered her resignation this morning.

In a letter to her colleagues, Handel, a staunch pro-life activist, said she supported the defunding of Planned Parenthood, but claims the decision was not politically motivated.

“Neither the decision nor the changes themselves were based on anyone’s political beliefs or ideology,” she writes in her letter of resignation. “Rather, both were based on Komen’s mission and how to better serve women, as well as a realization of the need to distance Komen from controversy.  I believe that Komen, like any other nonprofit organization, has the right and the responsibility to set criteria and highest standards for how and to whom it grants.”

Handel, a Peach State Republican who was hired by Komen just last year, previously served as Georgia’s Secretary of State. 

[ap / khk / photo: rollcall.]

This Is Informative, You Should Watch It of the Day: Brave breast-cancer survivor Linda Burger, 56, has a few choice words for certain people who seem to think politics should be allowed to dictate policy when it comes to the life-saving detection and treatment of breast cancer.

This video contains very frank language and courageously graphic footage of a body that’s undergone a bilateral mastectomy, but it is highly recommended viewing for anyone who wishes to learn from a well-informed source what breast cancer is, and — perhaps more importantly — what it is not.

[c&l.]

This Seems Kind Of Wrong of the Day: Raymond Johnson, one of the 2,140 men who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, was recently denied coverage through a Medicaid program for breast cancer prevention and treatment because he doesn’t meet the requirement of being a woman between the ages of 18 and 64.

The 26-year-old South Carolinian is currently paying out of pocket for his chemotherapy sessions, which cost $10,000 a pop. “Cancer doesn’t discriminate, so this program shouldn’t discriminate,” Johnson is quoted as saying.

A petition to revise the program’s policy has been launched on Change.org.

[p&c / wapo.]