Womxn and femme bodies face tremendous obstacles in South Africa, most notably gender-based violence. The UCT community was recently reminded of this war on womxn following the events of 2019. One of the manifestations of gender-based violence is the anti-abortion, or 'Pro-Life', community. Through misinformation, intimidation, comments in the media, and refusal to obey campus authority, a student society at UCT known as 'Students for Life', have continued to perpetuate outdated and harmful messages about how womxn should control their bodies. This includes showing womxn inaccurate models of unborn fetuses and refusing to leave campus after instruction by the Dean of Law. Which resulted in the re-traumatizing of students from past protest actions on campus. 

Let us be clear: this is not a fight about freedom of speech, but a fight against those who seek to oppress womxn. They do not follow their own mandate which states that they are a pro-life movement; but proceed to only comment on abortion. We know that forced pregnancies keep womxn locked in abusive relationships. Furthermore, womxn are also less likely to succeed economically and often, forced pregnancies are fatal.  

This petition would compel the SRC to ban the 'Students for Life' society from intimidating and traumatizing womxn on campus, specifically during O-Week. Subsequently we demand the amendment of the Societies’ Policy at UCT.  

We only need 1000 signatures for this mandate to be binding on the SRC, to prevent the spread of misinformation around abortion. After last year with such an emphasis on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) we need to remain a community and fight injustice to lessen the trauma of those that come after us. 

#BanAbortionMisinformation