Faith and respect for life instilled in youth: American Heritage Girls provides alternative to Girl Scouts

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As many Americans celebrate life by participating in the March for Life on Friday and in other events this weekend, the American Heritage Girls scouting organization is sharing the planned expansion of its pro-life programs to include its youngest members, as encouraged by the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, on June 24, 2022.

Currently, the American Heritage Girls' "Respect Life" patch is the most popular in the organization, Patti Garibay, the Ohio-based founder and executive director of American Heritage Girls, told Fox News Digital. 

The popularity of the patch is emblematic of "the heart that American Heritage Girls as a ministry and as individuals have for the unborn — and it's not just the unborn, but it's also those at the full spectrum of life," she said.

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This includes "those who are disenfranchised, who are elderly or who are in hospice care," Garibay explained. 

"American Heritage Girls love to serve."

Similar to other scouting organizations, American Heritage Girls are broken into different age groups. 

The youngest are the "Pathfinder" level, followed by Tenderheart, Explorer, Pioneer and Patriot.

Previously, the "Respect Life" patch was only available for older members of the American Heritage Girls. 

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To earn the patch, a troop of girls could do something such as attend the March for Life, collect diapers for moms in need, renovate the waiting room at a pregnancy center or make blankets for a hospice center, said Garibay. 

"It depends on the age of the girl – American Heritage Girls serves girls ages 5-18. So it's really a broad experience," she said. 

"Our tagline is faith, service and fun," said Garibay. 

 The Pathfinders, who are between the ages of five and six, have a modified, age-appropriate scouting program, says the organization's website. 

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The American Heritage Girls' expanded pro-life programming will be coming later this year, explained Garibay. 

American Heritage Girls, alongside The Radiance Foundation, a pro-life, faith-based nonprofit based in Virginia, will work together to launch a program called "Pro-Life Kids." 

The Pro-Life Kids program will be available for Pathfinders and Tenderhearts, said Garibay, and will teach young children about the importance of life at every stage.

"We encourage the families to celebrate life and to be able to look at those ultrasound pictures of when they were woven in their mothers' womb, and also to be able to celebrate adoption stories, which are just as important," she said. 

Promoting life, said Garibay, "is just going to continue to be part of our ethos and who we are — our DNA." 

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"And that is because we want every girl to know who they are and whose they are. And that is around their identity in Christ, which begins at conception," she said.

The importance of life, however, is taught from the very beginning. "We have a badge called ‘Our Family Heritage,'" said Garibay. 

"It talks about the ultrasound picture, because nowadays almost every girl in our organization has had an ultrasound picture of herself taken, which is different than when we started 27 years ago," said Garibay. 

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The American Heritage Girls group has its roots in another scouting organization: Girl Scouts of the USA. 

Garibay spent over a decade with the Girl Scouts in different parts of the United States before she formed the unique American Heritage Girls in 1995. 

Garibay knew she had to leave the Girl Scouts after the organization voted in 1993 to make the word "God" optional in its oath, she said.

"This wasn't something that I came upon lightly, as in, 'Let's just start an alternative to the Girl Scouts because I'm not liking what's going on there,'" she said. 

"That's not the case at all. This is a God thing."

Fox News Digital reached out to the Girl Scouts organization for comment. 

On its website, the Girl Scouts organization states, in part, "Because we understand that religious instruction is at the center of many families and communities, we invite Girl Scouts to take spiritual journeys via their faith’s religious recognitions."

The group adds, "Girl Scouts is welcoming and inclusive to members of all faiths."

Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, "was a regular Bible believer," said Garibay. 

"She did believe that there had to be a spiritual guidance in moral development of girls," she explained. 

With "God" made optional in the Girl Scouts, Garibay knew that she had to do something different. 

"I thought I could find something else that was out there," she said. 

"But there really wasn't anything." 

The first troop of American Heritage Girls consisted of fourth and fifth graders in the suburbs of Cincinnati, the organization's website notes. 

Now, there are troops in all 50 states, as well as independent "Trailblazers" in 15 countries. 

Troops can be found across a variety of Christian denominations, said Garibay.

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Both adult and child members are required to affirm a Statement of Faith. 

Anyone looking to start a troop can find out more information on the American Heritage Girls website, Garibay also said (americanheritagegirls.org).