The special election in Georgia between Karen Handel and Jon Ossoff resembles that of last November in one important respect: The sizable investment lost by Planned Parenthood after backing pro-abortion Democratic candidates.The tax-subsidized abortion corporation lost more than $30 million trying to get Hillary Clinton elected. Now it has just burned a whopping $735,000 on behalf of Jon Ossoff.
Planned Parenthood's investment in Georgia may seem large for a congressional seat, but there is personal history between Handel and the abortion provider which may explain their "all in" support for Handel's opponent. Back in 2012, Karen Handel was in charge of public policy at Susan G. Komen, the well-known breast cancer charity. Handel had recommended that the charity stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood and other organizations whose breast cancer prevention work was negligible.
Handel previously described the defunding as a routine "business decision" by a company trying to "set the highest standards and criteria" for their grant-making process. And she indicated that Komen was trying to "move to neutral ground" and away from a corporation many Americans regard as an abortion mill, not a women's health provider.
Ossoff's attacks on this issue might have worked to Handel's benefit. After all, the years since 2012 have not been friendly to Planned Parenthood's public relations situation. In 2015, the corporation's president, Cecile Richards, had to set the record straight at a congressional hearing by admitting that the abortion provider "does not, in fact offer mammograms or have mammogram machines in its clinics."
She was walking back a statement she had made earlier in an interview with Joy Behar when, while speaking about cutting funding to the company, she said, ". . . millions of women in this country are going to lose their health care access ... to ... you know, mammograms, cancer screenings, cervical cancer." Voters viewing the attack ad probably sympathized with Handel, who lost her beloved job at Susan G. Komen because of a business decision meant to put the charity's money to its intended use – saving women from breast cancer.
