Teen starts a prolife club in high school

Culture: Good for her but as you see the Washington Post persists in its bias by calling it an "Anti-Abortion."

For Stephanie Hoffmeier, it came down to believing in a power higher than a school system. With prayer, persistence and a lawsuit against the Stafford County schools, the 16-year-old recently succeeded in starting what might be the region's only antiabortion club in a public high school. The Pro-Life Club, which attracted about 20 people to its first gathering, also promotes teen sexual abstinence as well as opposing abortion. Hoffmeier said her legal fight was a matter of equity. "We just wanted the same rights as other clubs," Hoffmeier said in an interview last week at her Fredericksburg home. "It's not a radical thing to expect equal treatment." Asked why she started the club, Hoffmeier said: "I feel God has put it on my heart for a pretty long time." School administrators initially turned down Hoffmeier's request to start the club at Colonial Forge High School on the grounds that it was not tied to the school curriculum. She filed suit in federal court in Alexandria, contending that her proposal could not be denied when other clubs are allowed to form on campus. The suit put a spotlight on an often-misunderstood legal arena involving religion in public schools. Even some advocates of strict separation of church and state say religious speech by students at public school is protected under the Constitution and federal law. School officials, conceding they were wrong, officially recognized the club Oct. 24, and Hoffmeier dropped the suit.