And unlike past flaps - Komen has been booed for suing do-gooders who infringe on its trademarked "for the cure" - the controversy shows no signs of quieting:
Two dozen Democratic U.S. senators, led by New Jersey's Frank Lautenberg, on Thursday sent a letter urging Komen to reconsider, saying "it would be tragic if any woman . . . lost access to these potentially lifesaving services because of a politically motivated attack."
On Facebook, critics of Komen's decision promised to boycott batteries made by Energizer, which on Monday was welcomed to Komen's "Million Dollar Council" for donating more than $1 million to the foundation.
In a tense interview Thursday, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell - a Komen booster who revealed her own breast cancer diagnosis in September - asked Brinker why Komen recently hired Karen Handel as its senior vice president of public policy. Handel is an outspoken critic of abortion rights and Planned Parenthood. Brinker denied that Handel was behind the foundation's defunding decision.
Even Komen's own Philadelphia chapter hinted that it was dismayed.
"Like many of our supporters, the Komen Philadelphia affiliate is concerned about these changes, and we are in discussion with Komen national headquarters," Elaine I. Grobman, chief executive officer of the affiliate, said in an e-mail that echoed a statement on its Web page.
Grobman and several members of the affiliate's board of directors declined to be interviewed, referring all questions to Komen's Dallas headquarters.
The brouhaha is a shame, said Shelley Schwartz, founding chair of Philadelphia-based Breast Health International. BHI sponsored the local Race for a Cure until 2000, when Komen created its own Philadelphia branch and hired Grobman away from BHI.
