Abortion opponents form clubs at Dallas-area schools

Dallas Morning News ^ | 1/16/2009 | KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH

[markomalley]

Coppell High School senior Jill Dominy, 18, often goes to school wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Pro-life."

But her efforts to spread the anti-abortion message go even farther. Last year, she and two classmates who attend St. Ann Catholic Church in Coppell started an unofficial Pro-Life Club at the high school.

"We wanted to have a voice in a public high school, where a lot of people are undecided about their views," Dominy said.

The emotions surrounding the abortion debate show no signs of subsiding as the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade approaches Thursday. Now, Dominy and other young Catholics are bringing the issue to their public high schools with the support of the church.

Bishop Kevin Farrell of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas has called on youth ministers to make anti-abortion activism a priority. But he would not comment on whether part of the church's strategy is to encourage its teenage members to push their public high schools to sanction anti-abortion clubs.

"We have to educate our young people to be pro-life," he said. "We can't just focus on objecting to laws without teaching our young people the dangers of these laws."

Interest in clubs grows

Students also have started an anti-abortion club at North Hills Preparatory School, a public charter school in Irving. And teens from Red Oak in Ellis County all the way to Frisco in Collin County have expressed interest in starting similar school clubs, according to Jacquelyn Smith, director of the Dallas Catholic diocese's Youth for Life committee.

[markomalley]

This is a horrible scourge that must be immediately stomped out by the government!! (/sarc)

I wonder if the clubs will be allowed once FOCA passes?

[markomalley]

Pro-life/Catholic ping for your lists

[Cyclone59]

See what really happens at public schools once you leave the big cities like New York, Chicago, LA, DC and St. Louis - conservative values are actually taught and students live them.