CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) – Donna Coody disbanded her 7-year-old daughter’s Brownie troop and took her 9-year-old daughter out of another Girl Scout troop because she was upset over the organization’s endorsement of two Planned Parenthood sex education seminars.

So she decided in March to start a troop affiliated with the Christian-based American Heritage Girls.

“I felt like the Girl Scouts’ morals were definitely lacking, and the girls needed another choice,” Coody said.

American Heritage Girls was founded in 1995 by a Cincinnati-area woman and her friends who were unhappy that the Girl Scouts accepted lesbians as troop leaders, banned prayer at meetings and allowed girls to substitute the word “God” in the oath.

What started with 100 girls in Ohio has turned into a nonprofit group with 2,800 members in 22 states – with a 40 percent enrollment boost since the fall, founder Patti Garibay said.

The organization receives no government money and operates by donations, fund raising, membership dues and merchandise sales.

“It’s people who really want a wholesome program for their daughters,” Garibay said. “They’re not religious fanatics.”

Officials with the New York-based Girl Scouts say their numbers are up, too. About 2.9 million girls nationwide are in Girl Scouts of the USA, which was founded in 1912 and chartered by Congress in 1950.

The organization has not been deluged with complaints or had a mass exodus, spokeswoman Ellen Christie said. But if a parent takes a child out of Girl Scouts, the organization’s headquarters may not find out about it or know why, she said.

In 1993, in an effort to be more inclusive to girls of all faiths, the Girl Scouts decided to allow youngsters to say “Allah” or another word instead of God in the oath: “On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout law.”

The Girl Scouts also does not have “a discrimination policy,” meaning the organization is open to all, including gay Scout leaders and girls.

However, the organization takes no position on sex education or abortion, Christie said.

Those polarizing topics are what led to a Girl Scout cookie boycott in the Waco area last month after some parents found out that the Bluebonnet Council of Girl Scouts, which oversees troops in Crawford and 13 other counties, endorsed two Planned Parenthood sex education programs.

Pro-Life Waco, a group that opposes abortions, aired radio ads blasting what it called the Girl Scouts’ “cozy relationship” with Planned Parenthood and urged people not to buy cookies.

The Bluebonnet Council responded by removing its logo from materials related to sex education programs sponsored by Planned Parenthood. Council officials said they never gave money to the organization for anything, including the workshops.

“The more I know about the Girl Scouts, the happier I am not to be in it,” said Lisa Aguilar, who pulled her daughter from a Crawford troop last month.