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Week of
September 05, 2012 | | KOMEN BATTLE Karen Handel—a former bigshot at Susan G. Komen, the embattled breast-cancer charity—has some unkind words for Planned Parenthood. She calls the organization “a bunch of schoolyard thugs.” She says Planned Parenthood has become “blatantly partisan.” But perhaps the biggest criticism in her new book, Planned Bullyhood, is reserved for the group's president, Cecile Richards, who she says launched a “vicious mugging” of the charity. Handel is a former vice president of public policy for Komen, the charity that caused an uproar this year when it decided to stop providing an annual grant to Planned Parenthood. Handel’s book offers an insider’s account of that decision—which has upended one of the most powerful cancer-fighting organizations in the world. In short, she tells The Daily Beast’s Abigail Pesta, Planned Parenthood caused a very big war over a very small grant. DNC Since joining Planned Parenthood in 2006, Cecile Richards has revitalized the organization while serving as both its public face and its actual chief. Tonight she’ll be speaking at the Democratic National Convention. This year, she intends to draw a picture for a national audience of what an America without Planned Parenthood would look like. “If you want to see what a Romney presidency might be like, look at Texas,” says Richards, referring to the system that was rated “worst in the nation” under Republican Gov. Rick Perry in a federal study this year, and where women seeking an abortion are required to undergo a vaginal ultrasound. The Daily Beast’s Allison Yarrow talks with Richards on the road—on her “Women Are Watching” bus tour. | | 
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