The Girl Scouts organization has had ties to the Planned Parenthood abortion business since the 1970s and a past CEO has admitted as much, but the Girl Scouts CEO has released a new YouTube video denying any such links.
Responding to the national Girl Scout cookie boycott LifeNews and several pro-life groups are co-sponsoring, Girl Scout CEO Anna Marie Chavez has released a new video saying the venerable organization is not working with Planned Parenthood or pushing an abortion agenda, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.
The Girl Scouts have already scrubbed their web site of objectionable content in response to the boycott, and now the apology tour continues.
Girl Scout spokesman Kelly Parisi went on The O’Reilly Factor this week to try and defuse the mounting controversy, and Girl Scout executives have sent threatening letters to their critics.
Girl Scout CEO Anna Marie Chavez took to YouTube on Thursday to deny all charges leveled by the boycotters and to deny at least one charge they haven’t even made.
“Recently, various individuals and organizations announced their intention to boycott GS cookies this year, based on mistaken beliefs about our movement,” Chavez said. “These same individuals also believe the Girl Scouts has become too political.”
“We do not now, nor have we ever, had a relationship with Planned Parenthood,” she claimed. “Girl Scouts of the USA believes that reproductive issues are deeply private issues best left to families. I find it unsettling that anyone would use the Girl Scout brand to have very adult conversations. A box of Girl Scout cookies is not a political statement.”
“We are committed to serving God and our country,” she said. “I hope I have cleared up any misconceptions out there about the nature of the Girl Scout movement and what it means to buy Girl Scout cookies.”
Christy Volanski, a former Girl Scout mom and leader of the opposition, told Breitbart News:
GSUSA Anna Maria Chavez passionately claims Girl Scouts USA believes “reproductive issues” are deeply private matters best left to families. Yet we have example after example of GSUSA and local councils exposing girls to resources, content and organizations that specifically advocate for abortion rights. We have witnessed the Girl Scout double speak on this topic for years – th
is latest video by Chavez is just more of the same disappointing deceitful rhetoric. Can they just be honest?
The pro-life movement has been concerned for a number of years about the ties between the Girl Scouts and the Planned Parenthood abortion business, which date back to the 1970s. Although the Girl Scout organization maintains that it takes “no position” on the issue of abortion, parents, churches, and pro-life activists have long complained of the pro-abortion slant of the Girl Scouts’ resources, role models, and affiliations.
The links between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood are longstanding, with a Girl Scouts CEO and individual troops admitting as much.
The ties between the two groups have been questioned ever since former Girl Scouts CEO Kathy Cloninger admitted on NBC’s The Today Show: “We partner with many organizations. We have relationships with…Planned Parenthood organizations across the country.” See the video here.
Then, in a national survey, seventeen Girl Scouts councils admit to partnering with Planned Parenthood; many 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 — or 25% of all Girl Scout troops responding to the survey. The other 249 refused to disclose any possible relationship.
In 2010-2011 Girls Scouts in New York partnered with Planned Parenthood for a sex-ed program, “Real Life. Real Talk.” The program website touts their partners (link has since been removed): “Real Life. Real Talk. is proud to count the following organizations, faith communities and companies as partners: …Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways.” See screenshot of program web page here.
In June 2013, the Girl Scouts promoted a video honoring abortion activists and having pro-abortion advocate Amy Richards as their guest speaker. Because the MAKERS narrative is so unabashedly pro-abortion, it strips away all pretense that the Girl Scouts USA is ‘neutral’ on the issue of abortion.
The Girl Scouts have been criticized for their involvement in the May, 2013 Women Deliver Conference, an international event that included “safe and legal abortion” among its overarching themes. It documents its role in the planning and facilitating of the December, 2012 Bali Global Youth Forum and the outcome declaration, which demands youth access to abortion.
For fourteen years, the Girls Scouts in Waco, TX co-sponsored a sex ed conference with Planned Parenthood. “It’s Perfectly Normal” a book written by a Planned Parenthood executive was given to all children in attendance says abortion can be “a positive experience.” And in January 2012, Girl Scouts employee Renise Rodriguez wore a “Pray to End Abortion” t-shirt during off-duty visit to her Tucson Girl Scout office and was ordered to her to turn the shirt inside out or leave. View the 2003 event brochure listing Girl Scouts as a cosponsor here [PDF].
As LifeNews reported in 2012, the Girl Scouts joined with Planned Parenthood to head a UN conference and LifeNews reported on the investigation the Catholic Church is undertaking into the ties between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups.
The Girl Scouts have also promoted pro-abortion elected officials. Fresh on the heels of Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) sharing a recommendation for pro-abortion Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis as a 2013 Woman of the Year via their official Twitter account, the organization suggested pro-abortion HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as a woman “with courage, confidence, and character.”
Meanwhile, the new national spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts, Kelly Parisi, is the former spokeswoman for a pro-abortion organization — one founded by Gloria Steinem.
