by Crystal Ogar
Girl Scouts is an organization that is extremely important to me. Having been a Girl Scout for 11 years–exactly half of my life–it shocked me to read about the anti-abortion rights website targeting this organization.
Two Texas teenagers named Tess and Sydney Volanski, started a website called “Speak Now: Girl Scouts” with the notion that the organization has an “anti-life, pro-abortion agenda.” Personally, I find the idea that being pro-abortion and anti-life doesn’t equal the same thing.
My Girl Scout experience was about healthy choices–physically and emotionally. There was never a specific “agenda” that was being forced. In Girl Scouts, I was taught to make the right decisions for myself and we never shied away from the idea of sexuality and being safe.
“Speak Now” tries to convince the public that the Girl Scouts prints controversial content. According to them, in the Girl Scouts USA printed materials, girls are referred to what they call a “pro-abortion” website called The Women’s Media Center. Because of its “ultra-feminism” stance and an article on the rights of pregnant women that appears on the WMC site, they condemn the WMC for all that they are, which I find incredibly sad. (Note: The Women’s Media Center is a partner of SPARK.) The WMC’s main goal is to empower women’s voices in the media.
What these two teen girls aren’t getting is that the Girl Scouts are all about promoting healthy and safe women in every aspect of their world. Not just in their hometown, but also in the surrounding places they’ll go. The headline on the WMC website is “Making Women Visible and Powerful In The Media.” And that’s what GSUSA is about, too; making women as powerful and visible as possible to make a change. If what “Speak Now” is actually saying is that the Girl Scouts have a “feminist” agenda then, I guess, yes they do. And that isn’t a bad thing, but a beautiful thing that needs to be furthered.
Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood Clinic Director who also criticizes the Girls Scouts, is quoted on the “Speak Now” website: “I will never forget the first time I saw a GSA logo on the back of one of our (Planned Parenthood) brochures…I flipped them over and there it was…Girl Scouts of America. Surely this was a brochure about being sexually abstinent, right? Or about keeping yourself safe from violence? Nope. It was about ‘how to know you are ready for sex.’ Really? Girl Scouts? Do Girl Scouts have sex?”
What Speak Now and Abby don’t understand is that young girls are going to have sex regardless of any brochure. What they need is the tools to be responsible when making these decisions and that’s what important. The fact that a girls’ organization works with Planned Parenthood to keep girls safe from an unplanned pregnancy and STDs is amazing, not upsetting. If the Girl Scouts have any sort of agenda it’s keeping their young girls safe, informed, and powerful. And what is the Girl Scout’s Motto? “Be Prepared.”
Girl Scouts not only helped me grow into a strong woman, but also gave me experiences that I will never forget. Girls around the world have benefited from this amazing origination and will continue to do so–no matter what negativity comes their way.