Komen Exec Quits After Planned Parenthood Dispute

ATLANTA (AP) — A policy chief who resigned from the Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity says she stepped down to allow the organization to move forward.

Karen Handel told reporters Tuesday that she had become a focal point in the dispute over whether Komen organization should give money to Planned Parenthood.

She said Komen officials started discussing whether to change their policies in 2010 before Handel joined the group. She said the charity was concerned that some Roman Catholic Diocese had encouraged believers not to give to Komen because it supported Planned Parenthood, which provides a wide range of health services that includes abortion.

Handel says she was tasked with helping develop a policy that kept Komen on neutral ground in the abortion debate.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.