ON THE SIDE OF THE ANGELLS

Ethics Last year, Baylor University student Marty angell, a 22-year-old marketing management major from Dallas, began pushing Baylor administrators to allow an anti-abortion student group on campus. Angell also sought to change the school’s practice of forcing unwed pregnant students to withdraw from the Baptist stronghold.

“They allowed them to stay if they got abortions,” Angell says. He quotes a former Dallas abortion clinic owner who says that as many as 50 to 75 Baylor coeds a month had their pregnancies terminated at her clinic. “We don’t kick them out of church,” Angell says, “why do we kick them out of school? It’s good the Virgin Mary didn’t attend Baylor.”

The American Civil Liberties Union agreed; in September, it filed a lawsuit against Baylor on behalf of a pregnant student forced to quit school. The suit was settled out of court in February.

Baylor president Herbert H. Reynolds made a heavy-handed attempt to silence Angell. He was kicked off the prestigious Student Foundation, threatened with expulsion, and put on probation. But Reynolds backed off after Angell retained an attorney through a conservative Christian foundation.

Though Angell is still on probation, he feels that he has won part of the battle: Baylor now has a written policy to address each pregnancy on an individual basis. Angell says he’ll keep pushing, this time with plans to form a group to provide housing and financial help to unwed mothers.