School is starting today, so which Alexandria high school is more pro-life?

School is starting again today in Alexandria, Virginia. In Alexandria, we have two high schools, the Catholic Bishop Ireton and public T.C. Williams High School.

Bishop Ireton High School busses students to the annual March for Life and has a supportive pregnancy policy. In addition, it requires counseling for both parents, both when there is a pregnancy and when it is suspected that a pregnancy has been ended through voluntary abortion (and if spiritual direction is refused, the child is no longer welcome).

T.C. Williams has no policy on abortion. However, it does provide services to student mothers, including in-school day care through Alexandria's Campagna Center. Bishop Ireton doesn't do that. Catholic Colleges don't do that either.

Sometimes pastoral support is not enough. Even accommodating a pregnancy is not enough. Accommodating motherhood is what is required. T.C. Willilams does that, while Ireton does not. It is perhaps time to abandon the whole adoption meme in the Church (which serves the purposes of the providing kids to childless couples, which is a profitable sideline) and instead make sure that every pregnant student at the high school and college levels are enabled to continue their educations with full support (and free tuition - as well as living expenses). Going to that level would actually decrease the number of abortions. That would be walking the walk. Until this happens, is it any wonder that the Church's pronouncements at election time about a culture of life tend to ring hollow?

For more information on Bishop Ireton, see http://www.bishopireton.org/Document.Doc?id=69
For more information on the Campagna Center, see http://www.campagnacenter.org/