About two or three times a year in my east-end Toronto neighbourhood, on a busy street corner just outside of East General Hospital, a small group of decrepit old men stand around with signs that read “ABORTION IS MURDER.”
And every time those decrepit old men stand outside of that hospital, which performs abortions daily, my mom, my sister and I drive by with the windows rolled down, middle fingers extended, horn blaring. We’ve done this for at least a decade. It is the only time my mother has condoned rudeness toward the elderly. As she explained to us, sometimes we have to stick it to our elders, or any other type of authority, to defend our rights.
Here’s the catch, and the reason why democracy is both a beauty and a bitch: though we have the right to protest against pro-lifers, those pro-lifers have the right to be there. And they should have that right.
That’s why, even as a pro-choice, pro-sex feminist, I wholeheartedly support Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) decision to lift the ban on Carleton Lifeline, Carleton’s pro-life student group.
Following the arrests of several of its members in 2010, Carleton Lifeline was decertified by the CUSA, because the group uses graphic images of aborted fetuses as part of their promotional material. This means that Carleton Lifeline is not permitted to host events or recruit new members on campus, and does not receive funding from the student association.
Then in early 2012, CUSA passed a referendum that bans pro-life events and displays all together.
On Dec. 12, CUSA councillors effectively reversed their decision to ban Carleton Lifeline by lifting the ban on anti-abortion or pro-life groups.
In general I am unsympathetic to the pro-life movement, particularly the one perennially raging in the US. It’s dogmatic, it reeks of corporatism, and it’s just plain scary. Many pro-life groups use false and vastly outdated information to intimidate women. Some are even anti-contraception.
But talk to pro-life individuals, like the ones who make up Carleton Lifeline, and in general you’ll discover that not all pro-lifers are militant, sexist ideologues.
I had an opportunity to interview Taylor Hyatt, president of Lifeline, just weeks before CUSA’s vote on Dec. 12. Despite our deep ideological differences, it was an insightful and civilized conversation.
Lifeline does not have an official stance on contraception. They are not affiliated with any religious organization.
They do not consider themselves anti-women, since many members of Lifeline are women, including Hyatt.
In fact, a growing demographic of Canada’s pro-life activists are young women. The abortion debate is more complex than young versus old, women versus men, conservative versus liberal. Defending my reproductive rights isn’t as simple as flipping off oldsters with antiquated values.
There were good intentions behind the ban on pro-life groups following CUSA’s referendum in 2011. But these good intentions were misguided.
I fundamentally disagree with every aspect of the pro-life movement. But it wasn’t so long ago that the Canadian government tried to silence the feminist voice and the pro-choice movement. In fact, it still happens today.
Eliminating the voice of a minority political group (which pro-lifers are) on campus is undemocratic. It is wrong.
Instead, pro-choice students should fulfill their democratic duty. They should get angry, and more importantly, channel that anger into democratic political action.
As pro-life lobbyists try to change Canadian abortion laws, pro-choice Canadians will try and stop them through protest, lobbying, and their government representatives. But those pro-life advocacy groups will always exist.
So as Carleton Lifeline tries to change the hearts and minds of Carleton students, it should be the CUSA Womyn’s Centre and other pro-choice student groups keeping them in check.
Do graphic images of aborted fetuses piss you off? Do you disagree with the misinformation about Plan B and Post-Abortion Stress Syndrome that pro-life groups preach?
Then picket opposite Lifeline. Protest on Parliament Hill.
It’s time that more students get angry, and make their voice louder than their political or ideological opponents, because those opponents aren’t going anywhere. They have the same rights as you.
— Layne Davis,
(third-year) journalism and political science student
