Abortion activism cripples Girl Scouting’s vital mission
Mary Sanchez
One very busy St. Louis mother of five (soon to be six) adamantly believes that Girl Scouting is incompatible with being a good Catholic.
She wants you to think so, too.
Ann Saladin diligently works to publicize what she believes are links between Girl Scouting and the nefarious forces of abortion and birth control.
Lately, she’s had a fair amount of success.
Saladin’s most recent coup is a decision by the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas to discontinue its parishes’ Girl Scouting programs. Last year, she helped persuade her own Archdiocese of St. Louis to cut ties. Others have been targeted by parents riled up by her website, mygirlscoutcouncil.com.
The nature of the connection will be familiar to those who have played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon or who have read accounts of show trials. The connection doesn’t exist. But there’s plenty of guilt by association.
Various Girl Scout publications, it seems, have held up famous women as exemplars to girls. Women such as Madeleine Albright, Shirley Chisholm, Geraldine Ferraro, Dolores Huerta, Jane Goodall, Billie Jean King and America Ferrera. Women who famously advocated for reproductive choice. Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan draw special disdain. Saladin has called the organization out on the fact that Hillary Clinton visited with some Girl Scouts as she campaigned for the presidency.
Here’s a typical bromide from her website: “Multiple local councils and Girl Scouts USA are promoting select women members of Congress as ‘Portraits in Leadership.’ Of the Congresswomen presented, over two-thirds consistently vote for pro-abortion legislation.”
The most tenuous “connection” between Girl Scouts of the USA and the International Planned Parenthood Federation involves the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). Whatever relationship WAGGGS may have with any advocacy group is not directly relevant to Girl Scouts of the USA, the U.S. organization explains, since its membership is much like our country’s membership in the United Nations.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops studied the issue for two years, then decided to leave the matter up to each diocese.
Ironically, it is one of Girl Scouting’s most positive attributes that tilled the soil for this attack. A secular organization, programming and emphasis can vary from troop to troop, with local dictates, individual scouts and leaders making choices.
But this latitude also leaves room to believe that a Girl Scout somewhere is being led down a treacherous road to unholy immersion in human sexuality, contraception and abortion — all issues on which Girl Scouts of the USA takes no position.
Some bishops have promoted an organization called American Heritage Girls as a substitute. That may fill the void, more or less.
Yet the damage is that certain activist organizations are falsely maligning one of the world’s most effective organizations dedicated to building girls’ courage, confidence and character.
The misguided efforts undercut what the world needs more, not less, of — young women with the leadership skills Girl Scouting has tirelessly enhanced for more than 100 years.