PLEASE SIGN TO OPPOSE THE EXISTENCE OF A ‘PRO-LIFE’ SINGLE ISSUE SOCIETY

University must be a safe space for healthy debate; a place where intellectual curiosity is able to flourish and people are in turn able to learn and develop their opinions. However, by allowing the existence of a society based around an opinion, that belief is shielded from the necessary scrutiny that would normally occur. It is especially alarming when this society has adopted such a controversial and harmful point of view, a view which is a direct attack on women’s rights.

According to the World Health Organisation, 22,800 women die a year from botched abortions. This is a direct result of those who wish to perpetuate the fallacy that no woman really wants an abortion, or that to have an abortion is comparable to murder. Not only is the existence of a society based around a single issue intellectually reductive, it will undoubtedly exacerbate the pre-existing stigmas around abortion, such as shame and self-loathing. Its existence undermines the complexity of each individual woman’s experience. This dangerous ideology is one that must be exposed to the opposition, not sponsored by our student union, and we believe that those who so strongly believe it should express it in other society’s - such as the Debating Soc or the Christian Soc.

The Student Guild, through bankrolling this society, is enabling individuals such as these to have a stronger platform in which to express their backward and sinister views. See below:

Some quotes from the members of this ‘society’, when asked why they are pro-life

“...Abortion is part of the rebellion against God and it deserves punishment” (President, Alireza Ghazi-Torbati)

“Because I do not believe that any woman really wants to have an abortion” (Vice-President, Robert Tawse)

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you will support us on our mission to strike down a society that threatens the safety and wellbeing of women across the University of Exeter.

Yours,

George Adamson Lauren Gollop Isobel Maddocks