Religious groups typically are pro-life, but what about pro-unmarried pregnancy? One school in Texas, Heritage Christian Academy, fired a science teacher after her announcement of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Cathy Samford, 29, told ABC News she isn’t just “some teacher that went out to a bar and got pregnant and went back to school saying, ‘It’s OK.’” The father of her child was also her fiancé.

Samford, also a volleyball coach, told her superiors she would have to miss some of the season, and she was informed she no longer had a job at the academy.

She said she informed officials she’d push her wedding date up to ease concern — they were getting married anyway, but it didn’t matter. As a private school, the teachers are expected to be a “Christian role model” for students, according to headmaster Ron Taylor.

“We had the feeling that because kids on her volleyball team and kids in her classes knew she was pregnant, it really wouldn’t have changed anything,” Taylor said in an interview with ABCNews.com. “It doesn’t change that her behavior was out of wedlock.”

Samford is taking legal action against the school, and we support it. Firing a woman because of pregnancy is a violation of state and federal law.

“It’s against the law to fire someone for them taking a pregnancy leave and you can’t preventatively fire someone. You can’t contract around anti-discrimination laws,” Samford’s attorney Colin Walsh told ABCNews.com. “Just being generally religious or upholding Christian values is not enough to evoke the ministerial exception.”

In a world where “safe sex” is more common than “saving sex,” this shouldn’t be an issue. It’s the 21st century, and we’re surprised at Heritage Christian Academy’s decision to sack a woman for being open and honest.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.