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Year 12 students from a number of Catholic schools in the Wollongong region have claimed they felt "pressured" to support the anti-abortion Rally for Life campaign. Several students took to social media on Tuesday night to express their "disgust" at being unwittingly used as "political pawns". One parent, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Mercury her daughter and some of her fellow students at St Mary Star of the Sea College regretted attending an event at Edmund Rice College on Tuesday. "We were sent an email [by the Wollongong Catholic Diocese] saying it was just a gathering and it was compulsory to attend," the parent said. "When my daughter came home she was beside herself. She said, 'Look, Mum, I understand that everyone has got their own opinions but what was said there today was really not what I went to that school for'. "She said it was pretty awful that these people felt like they could treat women in that way and speak about them like that." St Mary principal Dr Frank Pitt said the school did not send an email or other communication to parents or students about the rally. "Furthermore, the college has no knowledge of any reports of such emails being sent," Dr Pitt. The Mercury understands a number of year 12 students from Catholic schools in the Wollongong Diocese attended the event. Read more: St Mary Star of the Sea College publicly supports ant-abortion rally But the parent who spoke to the Mercury said she was disappointed her daughter was involved in a "political statement" about the abortion bill. "We were totally blindsided about what they were actually doing on the day and it seemed quite orchestrated," she said. "Had we been more informed about what the day was about, we would have chosen for her not to attend. "We sent her to an all-girls school because it has generally been very progressive and we want her to have good choices in life, similar to what the bill in question is proposing. "But she was so disappointed. Her words to me were 'Mum, I'm absolutely traumatised of what I've witnessed today'. It broke my heart." The gathering came a day after many former St Mary students expressed their anger at the school's public stance on abortion. They were particularly upset that the school promoted the Stand for Life rally, held in Martin Place, Sydney, on its Facebook page. "Somehow this school is still finding a way to haunt me," one former student posted. "An institution full of young women and this is the message they choose to share - that we shouldn't be in control of making decisions about our own bodies."

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