Girls Gone Bad: The Girl Scouts Link to Planned Parenthood

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI—Say it ain’t so!  We have heard about this for years, read some articles written a long time ago.  We have clutched our Thin Mints™ and our Peanut Butter Patties™ and closed our eyes and said, “We won’t believe it until we have more proof.”

Now a little soccer mom from St. Louis has done the work for us.  She has proof.  The Girl Scouts are linked to Planned Parenthood, the United Nations’ abortion agenda and a lot of other really bad stuff.

Ann Saladin’s three daughters first received an invitation to join the Girl Scouts from a parish school. One daughter was in Girl Scouts for three years, “It was a great experience,” said Saladin.

But Saladin pulled her daughters out of Girl Scouts, after discovering both financial and curriculum ties to organizations that promote abortion.

Here is how it works.  Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) is a member of WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts).  There are 145 WAGGGS organizations around the world and Girl Scouts is the largest member organization. GSUSA has a fiduciary relationship with WAGGGS. GSUSA pays money into WAGGGS. In 2007, for instance, the Girl Scouts USA made a $1.8 million payment to WAGGGS.

Never heard of WAGGGS?  You should get to know them.  Their website is. www.WAGGGS.org

WAGGGS invites Girl Scout councils and girls to be delegates to lobby for “sexual and reproductive rights” at United Nations events such as:

• The Commission on the Status of Women
• UN Climate Change Conference (the message here is sexual and reproductive rights play an important part in climate change.)
• UN Global Youth Forum
• Global Youth Forum sounds harmless enough…but this is no World Youth Day. The Outcome Document from the 2013 Global Youth Forum, held in Bali, calls for:
• Abortion on demand
• Contraception
• Sexual rights for all young people  regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity
• Elimination of parental consent laws (where a minor girl notifies a parent before an abortion)
• Sexuality education that is “free of religious intolerance.”
• Decriminalization of prostitution (which they call “sex work”)

(Read it for yourself: search “Bali Global Youth Forum Declaration 1”.)

These are all positions WAGGGS advocates.  It should be no surprise that WAGGGS is a close partner of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and Planned Parenthood sometimes appears as a resource at the end of WAGGGS handbooks, like the “Voices Against Violence” handbook.  In fact, IPPF boasts about its close ties to WAGGGS.

WAGGGS is controversial enough that Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa has a “Frequently Asked Questions” section on its website that says, “Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa does not have a local relationship or partnership with Planned Parenthood.”  And “Every Girl Scout organization is a member of WAGGGS…” but “troops and individual girls are not members of WAGGGS.”  (How is that possible?)

This makes you think WAGGGS is some kind of distant cousin.  But when you click on “Who We Are” on the Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa website, then “Girl Scout Days,” you see, “World Thinking Day.”  This is WAGGGS main fundraiser, according to Saladin.

Under “Travel” one of the trips is “WAGGGS World Centre” trip to the Swiss Alps in 2015 for grades 8-12.  It looks innocent, but another website on WAGGGS’s Swiss retreats suggests more abortion indoctrination.

All Girl Scouts websites promote numerous activities, awards and links to WAGGGS. The WAGGGS “Global Action Theme (GAT) Badge Curriculum, is based on the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MGDs), which sound harmless: “Improve Maternal Health.”  Who wouldn’t be for that?

But one of the GAT badge projects says, “Visit a family planning clinic and find out about the ways they try to prevent adolescent pregnancy.”

A GAT Badge project for “Younger Members” suggests: “Talk to your mother or another mother about what it is like to be a mum.  What is good about it?  What is not so great?  Draw a cartoon about it.”
Nothing like starting them off young with negative images of motherhood.

What about those cookies?

“Cookie money stays local” says Saladin, “But millions of dollars in licensing fees go directly to Girl Scouts USA to spend as they choose.”

Girl Scouts does a lot of good—promoting self-esteem, friendships and independence in girls.  There are many good people involved locally as troop leaders and volunteers. But if any part the money goes to an organization that is a training ground to turn girls into abortion activists, it may be time to explore other paths.

Ann Saladin’s website is www.mygirlscoutcouncil.com.