Commentary
In 2018, Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona
highlighted teenager Meghna Gopalan for her volunteer work on “reproductive health justice”—a term that encompasses, and is often a synonym for, access to abortion. As part of her project, Gopalan partnered with the Women’s March in Tucson, Arizona, another booming voice for abortion. This year, she received the Gold Award, the Girl Scouts’ highest honor, for her work.
As part of another
Gold Award project in 2018, Annalise Poisson, a Girl Scout with the Green and White Mountains council in New Hampshire, held a “Young Women’s Health Expo.” Participants in the
exposition included Planned Parenthood, ACLU, and abortion provider Equality Health Center.
Pro-choice Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) spoke at the event.
Hassan wrote in a Facebook
post: “As Annalise helped point out, in order for women to be able to fully participate in our economy and our democracy, they must be able to make their own health care decisions. Yet even in the year 2018 there are still some in Congress that want to roll back women’s access to critical health services. We cannot let that happen.”
The Girl Scouts have
long promoted abortion and fostered a sketchy relationship with abortion affiliates, including Planned Parenthood. These recent award projects, combined with contributions and previous nefarious entanglements with Girl Scouts councils, demonstrates a disturbing dichotomy: Why does an organization like the Girl Scouts, which purports to advocate for wholesome ideas, also champion abortion with the likes of Planned Parenthood?
It’s strange, if not ghoulish, that the Girl Scouts of America would choose to honor one of their own for volunteer work on abortion issues. However, this coupling is not abnormal. Even though the Girl Scouts
FAQ on social issues actually says they have no relationship with Planned Parenthood, that’s just patently false at best and misleading at worst.
And if you think buying cookies is a safe way to support your local Girl Scout troop, you might want to think again. Putting aside the fact that Girl Scouts of America makes millions in licensing fees from selling cookies, a
small proportion of the proceeds go toward supporting the Girl Scout award projects—like those described above.
Turns out, Girl Scouts don’t just kick back with Thin Mints, but with actual dough. Isn’t it nice to know that part of your $4 from that box of addictive Samoas might have helped advocate for abortion? Thanks to this information, I’ll never buy a box of Girl Scout cookies again.
The Girl Scouts relationship with Planned Parenthood goes back even further. In a 2004 survey, 17 of the 315
Girl Scouts councils admitted to partnering with Planned Parenthood; more than 200 councils wouldn’t say whether they had a relationship or not. Former Girl Scout CEO Kathy Cloninger
admitted on national TV that the Girl Scouts partners with Planned Parenthood to bring sexual information to girls. The former national spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts, Kelly Parisi,
was also a former spokeswoman for a pro-abortion organization.
In more recent times, they’ve tried to deny it.
But in 2016, it was revealed that many Girl Scout councils still quietly partnered with local Planned Parenthood clinics. Because the Girl Scouts are broken down into local councils, this relationship was influential, no matter how much it’s ignored or flat-out denied.
The Girl Scouts can continue to deny that it has a relationship with Planned Parenthood or any other pro-abortion groups, but their council actions, social media, and affiliations tell an entirely different story.
Developing Character
In many ways, the Girl Scouts seems like an incredible, wholesome organization: the girl power answer to boys and their Scouts’ code. Their web page includes inspiring stories of girls helping other girls beat cancer and ways to develop ocean conservation and discourage bullying. These are all worthy causes.The Girl Scouts site states they were formed to help girls thrive in five key ways:
- Develop a strong sense of self
- Seek challenges and learn from setbacks
- Display positive values
- Form and maintain healthy relationships
- Identify and solve problems within the community
Even if their affiliation with Planned Parenthood or other abortion advocacy organizations is minor, a small part of the many things the Girl Scouts do, how does advocating for abortion accomplish any of the goals above?
If anything, a pro-life stance—or, if we’re being really politically correct, advocating both positions equally—would at least meet the qualifications of ways the Girl Scouts claim to help girls thrive.
Abortion doesn’t reflect the Girl Scouts values because it doesn’t reflect the public’s values either. Most of the public doesn’t even advocate for abortion with the kind of fervent dedication the Girl Scouts seem to have for it.
Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist, pointed out recently on Twitter that a 2018 Gallup poll showed 14 percent of men and 12 percent of women think abortion should be legal in the third trimester. Yet the way the media frames abortion—and if the affiliations of the Girl Scouts and abortion organizations reflect this—abortion at all stages is beloved and espoused by all Americans. Not so.
“Imagine an issue where only 13 percent of Americans agree with the views espoused in 95 percent of mass media opinion sections. You don’t have to. It’s this one,” Domenech wrote in a tweet. Yet, the Girl Scouts readily partner with Planned Parenthood and other affiliates, promoting abortion with the rest of the mass media elite as if it is the cause ad infinitum.
If the Girl Scouts are trying to reflect U.S. society, and so are advocating for abortion because of it, they are wrong, and they have been misled this whole time by a corrupt, corroborating media, complicit in one of the most blatant and potent acts of circulating politically correct lies.
It’s time the Girl Scouts of America dig deep into their values and ask themselves why they really want to proclaim abortion as a valuable cause, and with that, an organization such as Planned Parenthood, which ends the lives of the littlest girls in our society, and often harms the emotional, mental, and spiritual health of the mothers, too.
Nicole Russell is a freelance writer and mother of four. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Politico, The Daily Beast, and the Federalist. Follow her on Twitter @russell_nm Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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