Censorship or tolerance? What do our groups face on campuses around the country in this era of ‘free speech’? This week we’re looking at recent developments in Aberdeen.
Cartoon Censorship!
21 May 2020
In recent years, a number of Students’ Unions and universities have unsuccessfully banned pro-life societies from affiliating with their Students’ Union – something which is often necessary to be able to access room bookings, Student Union money, and a place at freshers fairs. Each time, this blatant infringement on freedom of speech has been overturned in light of legal challenges from the pro-life student groups.
Aberdeen Life Ethics Society (ALES) was one of those that endured a long affiliation battle, spanning 18 months, before the University finally backed down. This was not, sadly, the end to their persecution that they had hoped for. Just the other week, they were under investigation from their Students’ Union after three students complained about the content of their public meeting ‘Does Abortion violate Human Rights? Presentation and Q and A.’
The content of these complaints? One student was not even present, while the other two argued that a video shown in the meeting was graphic (with no warning), and that the discussion around rape victims within the Q and A was ‘triggering’. This was despite the fact that the speakers unequivocally condemned rape while sensitively explaining the pro-life position. They also made the contents of the video clear beforehand.
“We are now going to show a brief animated video that accurately depicts the different medical procedures that constitute abortion at different stages. This video is narrated by Dr. Anthony Levatino who is a former abortionist based in the US.”
Furthermore, the title and description on ALES’ Facebook page made it clear that discussion would be on the sensitive and graphic topic of abortion. The speaker of the evening also reminded everyone at the beginning that their attendance was optional and people were free to leave at any time without judgement.
Despite all of this, the students of ALES had to endure a drawn-out complaints procedure, which took a couple of weeks, before finally being cleared of any and all wrongdoing.
In their statement, the SU told complainants that the issues had been raised and the pro-life society had “provided assurances to AUSA that clearer and more explicit content warnings in the future” and that “on this basis we have concluded that no further action will be taken by AUSA against ALES and the matter is now concluded.”
While we applaud the outcome, this blatant attempt to shut down ALES by students (one of whom did not even attend the event) should be condemned. Universities are places of learning, and every side should be allowed to present its argument without fear of being hauled through a complaints procedure for no justifiable reason.
ALES should not have had to give further reassurances to the AUSA that they would tiptoe around the issue for fear of making students feel uncomfortable. Here at APS, we continue to advocate for students just like those in ALES. Through events like theirs, we will continue to equip students to empirically prove that abortion is the greatest injustice of our time. We will see an end to abortion. We are the pro-life generation.
