Anti-abortion group takes legal action against Aberdeen University for discrimination as it accuses its student union of being a pro-abortion campaigner
- A pro-life group has taken legal action against Aberdeen University this month
- It was refused affiliation by the student union, blocking it from grants
- Glasgow University’s student union allowed a pro-life group to affiliate after it took legal action
- Affiliation allows societies to receive money for events and be at freshers’ week
An anti-abortion group has taken legal action against a university after claiming its views have been censored.
Aberdeen University students’ association voted by more than 95 per cent to not allow the pro-life group to affiliate after an opponent said the society had a ‘history of rape apologism and misogyny’.
It has now filed court documents accusing the academic institution of discrimination under the Equality and Human Rights acts.
If a society becomes affiliated, it gets access to money for events, campus facilities and can have a stall at freshers’ week.
It follows the decision of Glasgow University’s student union to allow a pro-life society to affiliate after it also took legal action.
The pro-abortion society claims it is being censored by Aberdeen University’s student union because it is being denied membership due to its views on abortion
Alex Mason, 33, who is married with two children and founded the student group Aberdeen Life Ethics Society, told The Sunday Times: ‘A section of the student body is leftist in view on this issue. I think this is a culture which is zealous for abortion rights.’
He argued that the society’s main purpose was to hold ‘peaceful’ debates on campus about issues including sex-selective abortion.
Mason, who is also from Virginia, said that while the group may hold protests near abortion clinics, it would not ‘hold up pictures of dead babies or yell and scream at women’.
The society first applied for affiliation in April last year and, after that was rejected, it appealed the decision.
At a student union meeting this year, more than 95 per cent of students voted to refuse the group affiliation.
There was a reportedly heated debate, with strong views from both sides, after the proposal was put forward by fourth year student Derek Gardiner.
Aberdeen University said the matter was for the student union when it received a complaint, according to the society
The university’s student union has a policy of supporting abortion access in Northern Ireland
The group, which has 230 Facebook likes and 85 followers on Instagram, said the vote was ‘shameful’ and a ‘public renunciation of free speech and association’.
‘In seeking to preserve their own insulation against an opposing viewpoint, they’ve demonstrated that those who claim to be the most progressive are often the most closed-minded’, they said in a statement.
‘AUSA may claim to operate as a democracy, but once the majority has used its power to strip rights away from the minority, democracy has devolved into mob rule’.
They have asked the University to intervene but, after it replied saying this was a matter for the Student Union, they sent legal notes to the Union’s Board of Trustees.
A university spokesman said: ‘The university is an inclusive community and recognises different beliefs, values and cultures. Student societies and clubs sit with the Aberdeen University Students’ Association.’
The student union has a policy that calls for access to abortion in Northern Ireland.
Glasgow University’s student union decided to allow a pro-life group to affiliate after it took legal action.
The group’s application was rejected in October last year. They submitted an equality complaint arguing that they had been discriminated against on account of their beliefs. When they were still refused, they took legal action.
The Equality Act says that an association must not discriminate against a member in the way it affords or denies access to a benefit, facility or service.