Indiana lawmaker slams 'radicalized' pro-abortion group. Yes, Girl Scouts.

Bob Morris, a member of the Indiana House, also called the Girl Scouts 'a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood' in a letter urging lawmakers not to mark the Girl Scouts' 100th anniversary. 

|
Scott Takushi/The St. Paul Pioneer Press/AP/File
A Girl Scout's dining room is filled with Girl Scout cookies. An Indiana lawmaker has issued a letter that strongly condemns the actions of the Girl Scouts, saying the orgianization 'sexualizes young girls.'

An Indiana legislator is under fire from his fellow Republicans for describing the Girl Scouts of America a “radicalized organization” and urging the state House not to sign a resolution recognizing the organization’s 100th anniversary.

In a letter written to fellow lawmakers, Rep. Bob Morris (R) writes that the Girl Scouts are “quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood,” and that its agenda “includes sexualizing young girls” and promoting “homosexual lifestyles.”

The letter went viral Tuesday after it was obtained and published by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

Representative Morris said his findings are based on conversations with “some well-informed constituents” and “a small amount of web-based research.” He cites a May 2009 article from World Net Daily, a conservative online news outlet, that states that Girl Scouts are not allowed to pray or sing Christmas carols.

He also criticizes an “education seminar” hosted by the organization, which asked girls to study 50 female role models. Of the fifty women listed, “only three have a briefly-mentioned religious background – all the rest are feminists, lesbians, or Communists,” he writes.

The letter pointed to the reignited culture wars playing out at varying intensities across Indiana and the nation. Indiana passed a law last May to block state-disbursed Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood, which is the nation's leading provider of abortions – though a federal judge later blocked the law. Meanwhile, staunch antiabortion advocate and religious conservative Rick Santorum has surged to the front of the Republican presidential race.

In Indiana, Republicans quickly moved to distance themselves from Morris.

House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) started Tuesday’s session by handing out Thin Mints – the scouting organization’s signature cookie brand – to his fellow lawmakers and later stating from the podium he had “purchased 278 cases of Girl Scout cookies in the last 48 hours.” Speaker Bosma also asked any former Girl Scouts in the assembly hall to stand and receive applause.

At the end of the session, he brushed off the controversy, saying “I’ve been to the carnival before, and you don’t walk into every sideshow tent.”

Bosma would not confirm if he met privately with Morris. No other Republican representative expressed support for the letter.

The Morris letter gave Indiana lawmakers in both parties a topic they could both rally around – a rare moment in a year of heated partisan debate over a right-to-work bill involving union contracts.

Senate Democratic leader Vi Simpson joined Bosma in handing out cookies, while House Democrats passed around photos of former President Ronald Reagan surrounded by Girl Scouts.

Deborah Hearn Smith, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Central Indiana in Indianapolis, says the connection between Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood alleged by Morris is “inaccurate.”

“It does not reflect who we are and what we stand for,” Ms. Smith says. She adds that all children are welcome to join the organization regardless of sexual identity and that it does not have an agenda regarding human sexuality, contraception, or abortion rights.

“What he talked about, we would not talk about with girls,” she says.

The state’s chapter of Planned Parenthood also responded to the letter. Betty Cockrum, president and CEO, issued a statement saying the organization “currently has no formal partnership” with the Girl Scouts.

Ms. Cockrum frames the Morris letter as part of a national trend of “inflammatory and generally inaccurate claims” that “have been promoted primarily by anti-choice lawmakers seeking to place pressure on organizations to disassociate or distance themselves from” her organization.

Morris wrote in his letter he is pulling his two daughters out of the Girl Scouts and enrolling them in American Heritage Girls, a conservative organization based in Cincinnati that describes itself on its website as “the premier national character development organization for young women that encourages family involvement and embraces Christian Values.”

Morris refused to talk with reporters Tuesday at the statehouse in Indianapolis other than to say he was “focusing on the rest of the session.”

According to Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, there are about 90,000 Girl Scout members in the state and about 2.3 million nationwide. The national organization celebrates its 100th anniversary on March 12.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Indiana lawmaker slams 'radicalized' pro-abortion group. Yes, Girl Scouts.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/0222/Indiana-lawmaker-slams-radicalized-pro-abortion-group.-Yes-Girl-Scouts
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe