This is my first entry at Pro-Life Blogs, so I should first introduce myself. I'm Eric Scheidler, Communications Director for the Pro-Life Action League, founded in 1980 by my father, Joe Scheidler. That's enough introduction for now—follow the links for more info.
I know this has already been mentioned here a couple of times this week, but I want to encourage everyone to keep up the pressure on the American Girl doll company to sever their ties with the anti-family group Girls Inc. With the Christmas shopping season on the horizon, a large outcry over their link to abortion, birth control and lesbianism may bring results.
We've been in touch with the American Family Association on working together on this. If it comes down to it, we'll picket their retails stores in Chicago and New York—check back for details.
Meanwhile, join the effort to convince American Girl to do the right thing—and please let us know about your correspondence with them.
Eric - thanks for the post and joining the prolifeblogs.com team of authors!
Thanks for the heads-up. This is pretty appalling. One hopes that the suits in charge of American Girl are simply ignorant about what kind of group Girls, Inc. really is....
This raises an issue that's related to my earlier post...
http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2005/10/cracks_in_the_f.php
... and is a big part of why I'm not a member of NOW anymore.
Why have so many people confused the idea of being a feminist with also being pro-abortion and pro-LBGT? Ultimately, feminism began as the "radical" notion that men & women were equal to each other. Early feminists focused their energies on giving women equal status under the law: voting, property rights, etcetera. Nowadays, I think there are very few people who would still argue with the original feminist ideals.
However, now that most of those goals have been achieved in the US, modern "feminists" have moved on to other issues, yet continue to claim that all they want are equal rights for women. The cruelest irony is that most other women around the world, especially in developing countries, don't have anywhere near equal rights. But instead of helping their downtrodden sisters, American "feminists" demand more and more privileges that have very little in common with the original goal of equality between the genders.
It sure would be nice if there were more pro-woman groups that were simply pro-woman, instead of being pro-woman/abortion/LBGT/whatever....
Naaman writes: "One hopes that the suits in charge of American Girl are simply ignorant about what kind of group Girls, Inc. really is . . ."
Unfortunately, this is not the case. American Girl is well aware of what Girls, Inc. stands for, as many people who have written or called the company have found, including my mother.
They claim their contributions are "earmarked" for various good programs, but of course we're all smart enough to figure out that if you give the bad guys $100 for clean socks that's frees up $100 from the bad guy fund to spend on bullets.
Please call them: 1-800-845-0005. I just did; a nice (elderly?) woman named Marilyn answered the phone and said, "I'm so sorry you feel that way", but then said "Girl Inc. is such a good organization". Well, I disagree wholeheartedly with that.
Here's the thing: I was told that I was only the second call today! Please, heat up those phone lines and let them know we have a problem with this!
But be polite, and remember that the person answering the phone didn't make the corporate decision.
I know that Eric Scheidler (on 10/14/05) did not draw a comparison between supporting a woman's right over her own body and supporting our millions of children struggling with their sexual identity to giving "bad guys" bullets for their guns!!! What kind of an awful human being are you?
Jo Anna -- The point of that analogy was simply that donations are fungible. You can't really say "I'm only contributing to this good stuff, not that bad stuff."
Apparently American Girl didn't want people to think they were supporting abortion or lesbianism with their donation to Girls Inc. But that just doesn't wash -- as Girls Inc. themselves insisted.
I wouldn't use an analogy like that to talk about abortion itself; seems to me ripping unborn children to shreds in their mothers wombs with surgical instruments goes pretty far beyond the cruelty possible with mere bullets.
BTW, where do you get the idea that "millions" of children are "struggling with their sexual identity"? Or are you basing that on the Kinsey's bogus 10% statistic?