As the Cookie Crumbles...

I just watched a small piece on the cable news about the growing furor, particularly in (where else?) Texas, over people refusing to buy Girl Scout cookies this year to protest the fact that the Girl Scouts have some program in common with Planned Parenthood. They interviewed all these mothers who said they were either forming new girls' groups (and one said she would make certain her group sponsored good conservative, Christian causes and not Planned Parenthood), or quitting a GS leaders or pulling their daughters from the organization after explaining that "Girl Scouts help kill babies."

What a crock.

First, the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood aren't one. What they do share is a common interest in the rearing of intelligent, healthy young women.

Second, Planned Parenthood isn't the Anti-Christ. Abortions are a very small part of what PP does. Perhaps their most vital role is in performing GYN health screenings and protection information to young women who either can't afford or don't have access to their own doctors. Planned Parenthood does sliding scale fees, and that it just terribly important. I've accompanied a few different women to Planned Parenthood who were pregnant, looking for help, and trying to weigh decisions. Termination simply was NOT pushed. Each of three different sessions I sat in on as a friend of the patient were intelligent counseling sessions where a number of options were discussed: first and foremost, the woman's immediate health and the health of her fetus, and then how the woman would protect from an unwanted pregnancy occurring again.

Abortion mill? I think not.

Third: do you really want to lie to children to remove them from an organization? Think about what you're saying in not liking the Girl Scouts because they support little girls like your daughter growing up to be healthy and well-informed.

Interestingly enough, I also read this week that the teenage pregnancy rate in the country, while down in most areas, has risen recently in Texas.