It’s Girl Scout cookie season, and pro-life advocates again are refusing to support the organization because of its connection to Planned Parenthood and abortion.
This year, however, a new INSIDER report criticizes pro-lifers for speaking up and refusing to buy cookies. It claims the Planned Parenthood link is just a “conspiracy theory,” and pro-lifers are “harassing” young girls because of it, according to the blog She Knows.
But the truth is the Girl Scouts do promote abortion and Planned Parenthood, and none of the examples that parents gave to INSIDER about interactions with pro-lifers amount to harassment.
One Ohio mother, Indu Rajan, said a woman approached them while they were selling cookies in front of a Walgreens and told the girls that she would not support the Girl Scouts because of the Planned Parenthood connection. Rajan said her daughter “had no idea what she was talking about, and the adults were too shocked to respond.”
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Here’s another example described in the blog:
Melissa Atkins Wardy told INSIDER that her daughter Amelia was harassed by a woman while going door-to-door selling cookies in Wisconsin.
“The lady took the cookie form and shoved it back into my daughter’s chest, and said, ‘I don’t support programs that support abortion,’” Wardy said. “And I was like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me? My kid is 7. She has no idea what you’re talking about.’ And so we left.”
While the people in these stories may have been rude and should have spoken to the adults, simply expressing their opinions was not harassment. Pro-life advocates condemn harassment. They encourage people to speak respectfully to the parents and/or adult leaders, not the children, about their decision not to buy cookies because of the organization’s support for Planned Parenthood and abortion.
As to the “conspiracy theory” claim, the connection between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood is well established and has been for many years.
Insider referred to the Girl Scouts’ website, which states, “Girl Scouts of the USA does not have a relationship or partnership with Planned Parenthood.” The organization’s tax forms also do not show any money from the national Girl Scouts going to the abortion chain, according to the report.
But former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson said the Girl Scouts and the abortion chain are connected.
“When I worked at Planned Parenthood, we had a tight relationship with the Girl Scouts. We had many girls come into our facility for service hours, hours that they needed to count towards their badges and advancements,” she wrote recently at LifeNews.com.
Pro-life advocates began to question the ties between the two groups back in 2004 after former Girl Scouts CEO Kathy Cloninger told NBC’s The Today Show: “We partner with many organizations. We have relationships with…Planned Parenthood organizations across the country.”
Later, a national survey conducted by STOPP International found that seventeen Girl Scouts councils admitted to partnering with Planned Parenthood; other councils refuse to answer the survey question. Of the 315 Girl Scout councils in the U.S., 17 councils reported having a relationship with Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, and 49 reported they do not. The other 249 refused to disclose any relationship.
The Girl Scouts also financially supports a group called the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), which advocates for abortion for underage girls. According to GirlScoutsWhyNot.com, the national Girl Scouts gives more than $1 million to the WAGGGS every year through dues from local troops.
The organization also promotes abortion activists as heroines, including Hillary Clinton and former pro-abortion Texas legislator Wendy Davis. In 2019, its Arizona affiliate gave an award to a scout for volunteer work in “reproductive health justice,” an umbrella term that includes abortion on demand.
A former national spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts, Kelly Parisi, also was a former spokeswoman for a pro-abortion organization founded by Gloria Steinem.
These are just some of the many documented connections. More information is available through the website GirlScoutsWhyNot.com.
Johnson encouraged parents to consider other options for their girls, such as American Heritage Girls and the Little Flowers Girls’ Club.
“If the GS wanted to truly empower young women, they would cut their ties with Planned Parenthood and groups that are clearly pro-abortion,” she said.
