Resignation from Komen could burnish politician

ATLANTA – Karen Handel has had two major run-ins involving Planned Parenthood. One crushed her political career; the other has the potential to remake it.

Handel ran for the Republican nomination for governor of Georgia on an anti-abortion platform in 2010 but lost after her chief GOP rival accused her of being soft on the issue, in part because she voted years earlier to give Planned Parenthood federal funding.

On Tuesday, she resigned as policy chief at Susan G. Komen for the Cure after the breast cancer charity abruptly dropped plans to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. Handel had firmly backed the move to sever ties to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion provider.

Her resignation could burnish her anti-abortion credentials with conservative activists should she again seek elected office.