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Those subversive Girl Scout cookies

By Nicole Colson | March 19, 2004 | Page 2

EVEN THIN Mints aren't safe from the anti-choice bigots. Last month, John Pisciotta, director of the anti-abortion group Pro-Life Waco in Texas, announced that his organization was initiating a boycott of the Girl Scouts of America's annual cookie drive.

The reason? Pisciotta claims that the Waco-based Bluebonnet Council of Girl Scouts supports abortion because it allows its logo to be used on brochures for Planned Parenthood of Central Texas' annual summer sex education seminar for fifth- through ninth-graders. Pisciotta's group of religious nuts also freaked out about the fact that the Bluebonnet Council last May honored Pam Smallwood, director of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, with a Woman of Distinction award.

Two neighboring Girl Scout troops were reportedly disbanded after anxious parents yanked their girls out of the organization. But overall, Pro-Life Waco's "anti-cookie" strategy seems to have backfired.

Cookie sales have skyrocketed as people have bought extra to show their support. As one person wrote to the Waco Tribune-Herald, the anti-abortionists "just made buying Girl Scout cookies a political statement, and it's one I am not afraid to make."

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