Life-Minded Donors Can Still Support Scouting Organizations: American Heritage Girls Is Fully Pro-Life

 American Life League Charity Watchlist Offers Conscientious Philanthropists an Ethical Alternative to Girl Scouts

(March 18, 2024 – Fredericksburg, Virginia) Each March, Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low is regularly included among the honorees receiving accolades for Women’s History Month. Based on the overt anti-life leanings of the national Girl Scouts USA, American Life League’s Charity Watchlist recommends that pro-life donors consider turning their philanthropic attentions to the American Heritage Girls—a Christian-based scouting organization. 

“Women’s History Month is a great time to honor Patti Garibay, who founded American Heritage Girls in response to the Girl Scouts’ shocking agenda,” explained Katherine Van Dyke, American Life League’s lead researcher on the Charity Watchlist project. 

The American Heritage Girls was founded in 1995 by Garibay and other parents from West Chester, Ohio, as a Christian alternative to the Girl Scouts USA after the then 83-year-old group’s radical, anti-Christian bias came to light. 

“Life-minded donors will be happy to discover that the American Heritage Girls’ website features a prolific blog with a section dedicated to pro-life,” remarked Katie Brown, American Life League’s director of communications. “This provides a wonderful opportunity for those who retain fond memories of the scouting years to support a new generation of girls without having to endorse the objectional philosophies now espoused by the Girl Scouts USA.”

American Life League’s Charity Watchlist is an online tool using a simple stoplight green-yellow-red color coding to allow donors to know if they “go ahead” and donate to a green-coded nonprofit without reservations, “proceed with caution” after being fully informed of the potential risks of an organization assigned yellow, or “stop” any support of an organization that is designated as red because of its endorsement of abortion or other threats to life. 

The Charity Watchlist details some of the reasons that Girl Scouts USA has earned its red “stop” rating for philanthropists concerned with life issues:

• Girl Scouts USA maintains an ongoing partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, whose delegation for the Commission on the Status of Women demanded “access to comprehensive sexuality information, services and supplies for all young people.”
• Girl Scouts USA accepts financial support from United Way and Johnson & Johnson, both of which openly fund Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider.
• Girls Scouts USA promotes contraception through its “Public Health/Sexual Health” patch, where it also discusses consensual sex and encourages STD testing. 

By contrast, the Statement of Faith published on the website of the green-rated American Heritage Girls defines its value of “purity” as being called to “reserve sexual activity to the sanctity of marriage; a lifelong commitment before God between a man and a woman.” The organization’s earned awards include a Respect Life Patch, All God’s Children Badge, and a Pro-Life Kids Patch. Those factors, along with its pro-life blog entries, earn the group a thumbs up for pro-life givers, according to Van Dyke. 

“Charity Watchlist wants to highlight some of the more deceptive misunderstandings about nonprofit groups and their pro-life positions,” stated Van Dyke, “as well as affirm those organizations that are doing good and remaining true to life-affirming principles.” 

The Charity Watchlist currently profiles more than 100 tax-exempt nonprofits based on their implementation of life-affirming values or their endorsement of anti-life practices. American Life League promises that the list will continue to grow and invites charitable givers to submit nonprofit groups for Charity Watchlist review. Read the current Charity Watchlist at all.org/charity-watchlist.         

About American Life League

American Life League has been part of the pro-life abortion debate since its inception. Since 1979, American Life League has committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to death with a pro-life integrity that stands up for every innocent human being whose life is threatened by the culture of death. For more information visit all.org.