Karen Handel, who was perceived to be at the center of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure/Planned Parenthood Federation of America funding flap, has resigned the post that she held since last April.

In her resignation letter, the former Republican candidate for Georgia governor expressed support for Komen's recent move to cut off nearly $700K in funding for Planned Parenthood, a move she said was in the works before she took the post and approved by the board of directors.

Handel is "deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it."

After a huge public and political outcry, Komen restored Planned Parenthood's money for breast cancer screening and mammogram referrals.

Nancy Brinker, CEO of Komen, admits the breast cancer organization "made mistakes in how we have handled recent decisions and takes full accountability for what has resulted, but we cannot take our eye off the ball when it comes to our mission."

Her group will "learn from what we've done right, what we've done wrong and achieve our goal for the millions of women who rely on us," according to her statement released today to accept Handel's resignation.

She wishes Handle "the best in future endeavors."

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