Catholic student group’s pregnancy support campaign banned at university campus

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Queensland, Australia, May 16, 2008 / 02:30 am (CNA).- A Catholic student group at the University of Queensland has been censored and threatened with disaffiliation from the school’s student union because student union leaders believed the group’s “pro-woman” and “pro-pregnancy” campaign took a stand against abortion.

As part of a pregnancy support campaign, the Newman Society at the school displayed a poster and distributed leaflets that bore a photo of an eight-week old fetus in the womb.

According to The Australian, a disciplinary hearing run by the student union’s clubs and societies committee has banned the Newman Society from again displaying the material on a booth outside the student café. The society was placed on 12 months’ probation and must submit all future material to three officials, including the student union president, for approval.

Newman Society secretary Elise Nally, a third-year applied science student, said the union’s action was totalitarian and against free speech.

"I'd like to know what laws we've broken," Nally said. "The union is acting like a dictator."

Student union president Joshua Young, who is associated with the Liberal Party, described the reasons for the decision.

“I know the Newman Society thinks the union is being heavy handed, but the student union voted in 1993 for free, safe abortion on demand so all women have a genuine choice when faced with unwanted pregnancy,” he said.

A minority of the university’s 30,000 students voted in the 1993 referendum. According to The Australian, Young said the vote was about 1900 in favor of abortion rights, 1400 against, and 200 abstaining.

When asked if the vote precludes other views being advocated in campus debate, Young said “It does.”

Camillus O’Kane, national president of the Australian Catholic Student Association (ACSA), criticized the decision in a statement.

“If the truth becomes something we can simply vote for, it becomes a weapon that can be used against others. This is why freedom of speech is one of the guiding principles of our society,” O’Kane said. “It is a shame that this incident has occurred at one of Australia’s leading universities, a place of learning where we should be able to express our views freely.”

The ACSA said in a statement that pro-life groups had been active at the University of Queensland for five years after the student referendum’s passage in 1993 and no disciplinary action was taken against them. The ACSA argued that the referendum only established the school as a pro-choice campus, and did not require any particular viewpoint to be suppressed.

Elise Nally, the secretary of the University of Queensland’s Newman Society, is also national treasurer of ACSA.

In the ACSA statement, she said, “university can be a time when young women might be faced with the difficult challenge of an unplanned pregnancy. Those women not only deserve compassion, but also support.”

Comments: 6

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Steve
Boston/MA/USA 05/22/2008 03:25 PM EST

The comments on this article reflect a defense of wrongdoing both practically and morally by the Union President. By establishing and enforcing viewpoint discrimination as the official policy of the union, the President is allowed to hide behind policy as his reason for his actions? In layman's terms, this is BS.

Published by: David Six
Durham/North Carolina/USA 05/22/2008 10:40 AM EST

The article implies that the materials - leaflets and a poster - merely presented biological facts about pregnancy and offered encouragement to pregnant women to continue their pregnancies. If the materials did not directly oppose the Union's policy or advocate for the abolition of legal access to abortion, how could the Union President have objected? Educating students with biological facts of human development is clearly fine. Encouraging one legal choice (carrying pregnancy to term) over another (aborting the pregnancy) cannot be seen as a threat to abortion access any more than encouraging healthy eating, not smoking, and not drinking in excess threaten the legal access to fast food, tobacco or alcohol.

Published by: Hans Kung
Brisbane 05/19/2008 06:00 PM EST

As an affiliated club of long standing, this club knows FULL WELL that all club material must be approved by the Union President. This is a legal requirement as the Union is an unincorporated association and as such, the President is held to be PERSONALLY liable for all material produced by the union and its affiliates - ie. clubs and socs.
Every O Week the Newman Society gets all its materials approved by the union president. However, with regard to this occasion, this club specifically chose to NOT seek approval. Remember the Gospel of Matthew - “By their works, you shall know them.”
The clubs and socs committee (an elected body) of the union determined that your club failed to seek the approval of the president before this club distributed their materials. This rule applies to all club and societies - whether Christian, Muslim, atheist or socialist. Claimed ignorance on this matter is disingenuous as this club continued to distribute this material AFTER they were asked to seek the president’s approval.
Just as the Catholic church has canonical laws and theologies within which its members operate, so too the union. Freedom of sppech cannot be absolute because then speech that deliberately seeks to stifle others would be tolerated. A line has to be drawn somewhere. If the Catholic Students Club don’t like the union’s policies, they are free to disaffiliate!

Published by: Hans Kung
Brisbane 05/18/2008 05:55 AM EST

It seems that this entire exercise was a cynical publicity stunt on behalf of the Newman Society to gain publicity by flagrantly violating rules for union-affiliated clubs - which they were clearly aware of. The Newman Society know full well that they could have distributed materials on campus as "UQ Catholics" or whatever.

However, what they really wanted to do was cause trouble for the conservative union exec and get some publicity out of the whole exercise. If the Newman Society REALLY felt passionate about this issue, they would assemble the 1500 signatures required to hold a new referendum instead of trying to manipulate the union president into breaking the very rules that he has to keep!

Published by: Hans Kung
Brisbane 05/18/2008 05:54 AM EST

Before readers of this article judge the union president in his actions, you may not know that the union president's hands are tied by the current rules of the union.

As the uq union is a voluntary association, all materials produced by student clubs affiliated to the union need to be approved by the union president. If the union president approves material that is against union policy as previously determined by referendum then the president can be summarily dismissed from office.

In this case the Newman Society put the union president in a very difficult position. They didn't seek the approval of the president for their materials before they distributed them. Then when the president told them that the material could not go out with the official sanction of the union because it contravened settled policy, they cried foul.

It seems that this entire exercise was a cynical publicity stunt on behalf of the Newman Society to gain publicity by flagrantly violating rules for union-affiliated clubs - which they were clearly aware of. The Newman Society know full well that they could have distributed materials on campus as "UQ Catholics" or whatever.

Published by: Jack Picknell
Burnaby Canada 05/16/2008 12:41 PM EST

Another close minded university censoring freedom.

Universities give out doctorates to affirm you have been completly indoctrinated.

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