Who are Girl Scouts role models? |
Girl Scouts have undergone what they describe as a
"complete transformation" starting in 2003 in order to make their
programs and image more relevant to a diverse population.
However, that transformation may have accelerated rather
than slowed the tide with defectors citing the growing liberalism. Membership
has dropped over 20 percent in the last decade with no end in sight.
"In trying to be more relevant, they've gone too far
the other way," said
Cheryl Brown, former CEO of a Girl Scout council in Arkansas.
Pro-life organizations agree. Over the past weeks, many national pro-life
organizations called for a national “cookiecott” of Girl Scout cookies, claiming
that the Girl Scouts USA promotes a pro-abortion ideology. GSUSA emphatically denies it and especially
any connection to Planned Parenthood.
However, as early as 2004, then-Girl
Scout CEO Kathy Cloninger confirmed in a Today
Show interview that
Girl Scouts works with Planned Parenthood nationally. “We have relationships
with our church communities, with YWCAs, and with Planned Parenthood
organizations across the country, to bring information-based sex education
programs to girls,” said Cloninger.
Cloninger reconfirmed as much in an interview
at Harvard in 2007: “And I
feel like we cannot be the nation’s expert on girl issues without dealing with
how issues of sexuality affect the girls of this nation. We believe parents are
part of the discussion, but girl scouting needs to be part of education and
discussion as well.”
Politifact.com
of Texas says it was asked to check the accuracy of the claim that
GSUSA promotes “pro-abortion women as icons for our children to emulate.” It concluded
that Girl Scouts does not simply because the Girls Scout guide does not specify
“any woman’s activism per abortion as a reason for singling her out.”
That logic is nonsense.
Holding up women as role models while hiding their history as abortion
leaders only makes the selections dishonest, not unbiased.
American Life League—the
nation’s oldest Catholic pro-life group—and other pro-life organizations did
not get it wrong. Unfortunately, the bigger story may actually be worse.
ALL double-checked its own facts and found that, of the 11
women discussed with the PolitiFact writer, 80-89
percent are not just pro-abortion,
but celebrated pro-abortion leaders.
GSUSA selections include Betty Friedan, the founder of
NARAL Prochoice; Pauli Murray, a founding member of the
radically pro-abortion NOW; Rosa Parks, a past member of Planned Parenthood’s
Board of Advocates, and two women (Hillary Clinton and Dolores
Huerta) who won the Margaret Sanger Award “for leadership,
excellence, and outstanding contributions to the reproductive health and rights
movement.”
When asked about the imbalance, Kelly
Parisi, spokeswoman for the New York-based Girl Scouts, said, “We’re not trying
to be balanced because we’re not trying to promote a political agenda. We don’t
vet these women based on their political beliefs.” She continued, “We are a
nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization.”
Some critics say that is just parsing words.
“The Girl Scouts’ ‘no position’ means it is perfectly
happy to promote well-known abortion rights activists as role models like
Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Geraldine Ferraro (and on and on) as long as
that woman has done some other good deed alongside her advocacy for the right
to kill innocent children in the womb,” says Christy Volanski, a former troop
leader whose two ex-scout daughters founded the website SpeakNowGirlScouts.com.”
She continued, “It does not mean they refrain from
engaging in these issues; it means they are totally ‘indifferent’ to the
sanctity of life in the womb and the dignity of marriage. And I find that very
sad.”
Parisi’s also stated that the Girl Scouts
“believe
[abortion] is a private matter for girls and their families.” That is not only at odds with Cloninger, it does
not address why local troops openly
work with abortion advocates and providers.
According to the Catholic
News Agency, “The Girl Scouts have
filled their national
leadership team and board
of directors with unwavering ideologues whose careers,
nonprofit work, and philanthropic choices reflect a hefty commitment to liberal
causes—same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian rights, abortion rights,
comprehensive sex education, and ‘girl power’ feminism.”
Parisi is an example: Prior to GSUSA, she was vice
president of marketing and communications for pro-abortion Ms. Foundation for Women. MFW lists “reproductive rights and health” as
a top priority.
While there, Parisi reportedly
channeled her outrage “at women's inequality and gender injustice” that
she saw daily and was proud of her work in MFW helping Planned Parenthood to
attack Susan G. Komen.
GSUSA’s current $393,000 CEO, Anna
Maria Chavez, who succeeded Cloninger in 2011, has long been
associated with pro-abortion politicians and policymakers.
GSUSA’s tack to the social left also includes an “all
inclusive” policy that contains “insistence on being a voice for
all girls, regardless of their . . . sexual orientation, or gender identity.”
Deb Taft, chief development officer at GSUSA, serves on
the national board of governors for the Human Rights Campaign, the biggest gay lobby
in the nation. She chaired HRC’s 2010 and 2011 New England Gala Dinners.
But put aside GSUSA leadership associations— if GSUSA is neutral
on abortion, how can it refuse “to
allow pro-life advocacy to count
towards badge work” but “reproductive health” advocacy is specified as meeting
GSUSA leadership
program objectives?
GSUSA is the largest member and therefore a $1.4 million financial
supporter to WAGGGS, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Guides WAGGGS wants “To
rapidly improve the status of the girl child… especially on sexual and reproductive health
and rights.”
Once again, GSUSA dismisses the association as
meaningless.
The more one looks at the fundamental transformation of
the Girl Scouts, the more it looks like another fundamental transformation that
is not what most Americans bargained for.