Catholic School to Bar Girl Over Abortion Beliefs

An 11-year-old girl who supports the right to abortion will be barred from Roman Catholic school unless she renounces her views, a church official said Friday.

Sarabeth Eason may not enroll at St. Agnes School this fall until she pledges not to publicly support a woman’s right to abortion and writes a letter to the principal saying she does not believe in abortion, Father Richard Miller, pastor of St. Agnes parish, told the girl’s mother in a letter.

Her mother, Concepcion Eason, is an abortion rights activist and the former assistant director of a Toledo abortion clinic.

Sarabeth said Friday that she will not disavow her beliefs and will look for another school. She has attended the parochial school since kindergarten and will be in the sixth grade this fall.

‘Take Away My Freedom’

“It will give them the idea they have the right to take away my freedom of wanting to believe in abortion or not, and make them feel they could do that to other children, which they shouldn’t be able to do,” she said.

The Roman Catholic church condemns abortion, calling it murder.

Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports the right to abortion, said that she had never heard of a pupil’s being dismissed from a Catholic school because of abortion views.

Sarabeth was interviewed by a television reporter in January during a demonstration against proposed Ohio legislation requiring that parents be notified before minors receive an abortion. In addition, she signed a newspaper ad that month on the 13th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision making abortion legal, her mother said.

Jim Richards, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, said that the girl will be denied admission because she violated pro-life policy.

‘One Removes Oneself’

“Clearly, one removes oneself from the Catholic and Christian community when one advocates, finances, supports or encourages another person to participate in abortion,” Richards said.

When asked why Sarabeth had not been dismissed from school last year, he said: “That’s a question mark.”

Miller said in the letter, dated Sunday, that, if Sarabeth “would desist, and stop from public and exposed support of ‘pro-choice,’ and write a letter to the principal that she does not personally support abortion, I think we could move forward.”