A decision by Dundee University Students Association (DUSA) to ban the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) from setting up a pro-life stand at their fresher’s fair has been attacked by a leading barrister specialising in religious freedom.
A “fresher’s fair” is where various student bodies invite first year students to join their societies.
According to the Catholic Herald, Neil Addison, National Director of the Thomas More Legal Centre, said: “I hope SPUC sue DUSA and certainly if any student union in England or Wales attempts to copy DUSA, the Thomas More Legal Centre will not hesitate to take legal action against them.”
He described the DUSA’s actions as “philosophically and legally wrong”.
He said: “Student unions are under a legal responsibility to ensure freedom of speech and opinion in their university and banning an organisation such as SPUC is contrary to that legal obligation.”
SPUC released a statement last week which alleged that the society had been banned on “spurious grounds” from the university’s Freshers’ Fair.
Douglas Schreiber, vice-president of DUSA, said SPUC’s last stall had literary material and foetal models which were not just offensive, but “highly offensive”.
He added: “We have students on campus who have had abortions in the past and there was clearly some distress felt by a number of the students who attended the fair surrounding this issue.
“The students largely do not want anything to do with a group that promotes the removal of rights over bodily autonomy for more than half the student population that attend this university.”
Rachel Kidd of SPUC Scotland said: “DUSA has quoted several sections of its constitution against SPUC, but none of those sections contains anything opposed by SPUC… From 2005 onwards, SPUC held a stall at freshers’ fair for eight consecutive years without any problems. The stall simply offered factual information on the development of the unborn child and real help to women who may find themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation.”
Ian MacKinnon, president of the DUSA, said SPUC was banned from the event because its campaigning against contraception, abortion and gay rights “directly conflict with the charitable objectives of DUSA”.
But Mr Addison dismissed the statement as “legal gibberish.” He said: “There is nothing in the DUSA Constitution which is in conflict with the purposes of SPUC… DUSA have followed the Stalinist approach of … assuming that they have the right to determine what ideas students are allowed to hear.”
Meanwhile, sociologist Dr Tiffany Jenkins has defended SPUC’s right to present its point of view on campus, saying that DUSA were patronising students, and “denying youngsters the chance to formulate their own views”.
Writing in the Scotsman, Dr Jenkins criticised the actions of student bodies in “cocooning young people” from “challenging opinions” that “those in charge have simply taken a dislike to”.
She highlighted the content of SPUC’s literature, including the argument that abortion “denies a child’s right to life” and evidence that mothers will “likely suffer from post-abortion-trauma”.
This material is meant to “put people off having abortions, but that is the point of the organisation – it is ‘pro-life’” she added.
Describing the pro-life opinion of SPUC, she said: “it’s a legitimate point of view, if one that I do not hold”.
