When I was in elementary school, I was a Girl Scout.  I loved everything about being a Girl Scout.  I enjoyed working to earn badges, I thrived on the camping trips and service projects, and I sold Girl Scout Cookies each year. I still have my sash with my 25-box and 50-box pins on it.  When I was a young mother, I was a Girl Scout leader for my daughter’s troop and helped her and the other girls in the troop sell Girl Scout Cookies.  In recent years, my granddaughters have sold Girl Scout Cookies.  

Some pro-life groups are boycotting Girl Scout Cookies in response to the Girl Scout organization’s support of and association with pro-abortion groups and advocates.  I am strongly pro-life, and so it troubles me for the Girl Scouts to be associated in any way with a person or group that promotes abortion.

As a lifelong supporter of Girl Scouts and also as a pro-life Christian, I’m now faced with a difficult decision concerning the boycott of Girl Scout Cookies.  Because I’m such a strong pro-life believer, my first inclination was that I should support the boycott.  On the other hand, though, how can I say no to girls who aren’t involved in the political side of Girl Scouts and whose only goals are non-political – to enjoy activities with their friends, to earn badges, and to go camping with other girls?  Can I disappoint those bright eager faces with their cookies set up on card tables in the grocery store lobby?

I made my decision about buying Girl Scout Cookies.  Because it was a difficult decision, I want to share the process of how I made it.

First of all, I had to think through what a boycott would look like for me.  If a Girl Scout came to my door to sell cookies, what would I say?  I could politely say, “I’m sorry, I won’t buy cookies this year because the Girl Scout organization has been associated with abortion advocacy people and groups.”  How would a 10-year old respond to that?  I can imagine she would be hurt because, to her, Scouting has nothing to do with abortion, and the politics of my refusal would make no sense to her.