There is now little doubt that the Girl Scout cookie boycott is having an effect on cookie sales this year.
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.”
Girl Scout watchdog groups say Chavez has cleared up nothing and responded with a flurry of fact checks provided to Breitbart News.
When Chavez insists the Girl Scouts have never had a relationship with Planned Parenthood, Girl Scout critics point to the 2004 admission made by Chavez’s predecessor, Kathy Cloninger, on The Today Show: “We have relationships with our church communities, with YWCAs, and with Planned Parenthood organizations across the country.”
Beyond this admission by the former Girl Scout CEO, Ann Saladin, a stay-at-home-mom and former Girl Scout leader, has documented other examples of such collusion on the website MyGirlScoutCouncil.com.
Critics also point to the annual million dollar a year contribution made by the Girl Scouts to its international umbrella group, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, a group that overtly promotes and supports abortion rights.
Critics also point to the hostility Girl Scouts USA has shown to the pro-life cause in some cases. For example, two years ago Girl Scout employee Renise Rodriquez stopped by her Tucson Girl Scout office after her work hours wearing a “Pray to End Abortion” t-shirt. She claims her supervisor ordered her to turn the shirt inside out or leave the office. Rodriquez resigned.
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 – this latest video by Chavez is just more of the same disappointing deceitful rhetoric. Can they just be honest?
As to the Chavez complaint that the boycotters are angry about politics, John Pisciotta, the leader of the boycott and director of Pro-Life Waco, says that is a straw man argument as it is a charge the boycotters have never made.
Pisciotta says the boycotters did not single out the Girl Scout’s Wendy Davis tweet because she is a Democrat running for Governor of Texas but because she is a symbol of abortion advocacy. Davis is chiefly known for her filibuster of a late-term abortion ban in the Texas legislature. “We simply stated that they have in their tweet about Wendy Davis advanced her as role model for girls,” said Pisciotta.
Mary Hasson, who has written extensively about the Girl Scouts for the Catholic press, told Breitbart News:
This is classic Girl Scouts–say one thing and do another. I’ll believe the Girl Scouts are serious about respecting family privacy on sex and reproduction when they stop sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the “sexual rights” platform of the international Girl Scouts, when they stop promoting leading abortion advocates–like Nancy Pelosi and Amy Richards, who “selectively reduced” her triplets down to one–as role models, and when they stop telling the girls that the pro-abortion Population Council is a great example of an advocacy organization.
Critics also blanche at Chavez’s statement: “To quote the Girl Scout Promise: We are committed to serving God and our country.” God became optional back in the 90s.
Cookie sales started January 4 and will last from six to eight weeks, depending on the area of the country. There is no indication that the cookiecott or the controversy will end any time soon.
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