(See also: Girl Scouts: The Awful Truth)

People often talk about growing up in a time when they didn't have to lock their doors, when their children could go out and play without fear, and when everyone knew (and talked to) their neighbors.  It was a time when groups like the Girl Scouts flourished -- when they were viewed as a wholesome club parents could allow their daughters to join without concern that their little girls would be corrupted by feminists with an agenda.  As a matter of fact, parents and their daughters would often learn about the Girl Scouts from their churches.

But times change, and now we lock our doors, we don't let our children out of our sight, and many get their introduction to Girl Scouts from a proud supporter of Planned Parenthood -- like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

It certainly is a paradigm shift.

A watershed moment for the Girl Scouts came in 1993, when they amended their "promise" so as to omit the word "God."  Since then, there has been a slow but steady slide that has landed the organization in the not-so-loving arms of Planned Parenthood, and the feminists and hard-left politicians whom Planned Parenthood attracts.

Indiana State Representative Rob Morris (R-Ft. Wayne) sounded a clarion call on these matters last month, when he noticed that out of fifty role models the Girl Scouts currently provide for their members, "[o]nly three have a briefly mentioned religious background -- all the rest are feminists, lesbians, or communists."

Morris went so far as to refer to the Girl Scouts as the "tactical arm" of Planned Parenthood.

And although the Girl Scouts bemoaned Morris's reference, it was made at about the same time that Pelosi was boasting of the "valuable" and strong relationship between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood.  Moreover, it came on the heels of a teenage Girl Scout employee being order to turn her "T-shirt inside out or leave" when she wore a "Pray to End Abortion" shirt to work during off-duty hours.

Some former Girl Scouts have parted ways with the organization because of brochures like one labeled, "How to Know You Are Ready for Sex."  It's a Planned Parenthood brochure with the Girl Scout logo on the back.  Others are appalled that Girl Scouts of the USA is a member organization of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), which publicly advocates for abortion, contraceptives, sexual diversity, and "comprehensive" sexual education.

The good news is that there are options for parents who'd like their daughters to be in an organization for girls that isn't tied to Planned Parenthood and isn't divorced from a faith foundation.  One such option is the American Heritage Girls, a club composed largely of girls who left the Girl Scouts in search of a club that would honor faith and country.

While no one should be surprised that Planned Parenthood sees the Girl Scouts as a field of possible converts ripe for harvest, it is sad to see the Girl Scouts, once a part of Americana as innocent and honorable as a Norman Rockwell painting, lock arms with the feminists, sexual entrepreneurs, and proponents of death at Planned Parenthood.

In the good old days, people didn't have to lock their doors, their children could go out and play without fear, and mothers didn't have to worry about their daughters being indoctrinated at a Girl Scouts meeting.  Perhaps the current congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood will wake up and bring the good old days back to the Girl Scouts once again.

Catherine Glenn Foster is litigation counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.