Students to vote on Abortion
A University wide referendum is to be held at the start of next term to decide whether CUSU should affiliate to the National Abortion Campaign (NAC). A motion to affiliate to the NAC which claims to campaign for free and equal access to abortion services was originally passed at the first CUSU Council of this term. However a significant backlash led to an overturn of the original motion at the second Council meeting on the 24th of May.
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Although the motion was originally passed, considerable opposition to the proposal has since developed. In an attempt to reverse the original move, Christopher Rogers of Corpus Christi, tabled a disaffiliation motion to Council on 24th May. He told TCS: "Whilst I think CUSU were probably well-intentioned, it was morally wrong for them to affilate to the NAC without full consultation. There was insufficient publicity." Responding to the claims, Katie McClymont, CUSU Women's Officer, said: "Everything was done above board. This was not even an emergency motion, and so it recieved as much publicity as anything else." In the run-up to the second Council meeting, many college JCRs staged well-attended open meetings to discuss the issue. Anna Sandford, JCR President at New Hall, produced an information pamphlet for New Hall students, outlining the debate. A later vote at the college saw 24 in favour of disaffiliation, no votes for maintaining affiliation, and 2 abstentions. At Emmanuel, whilst less clear-cut, JCR President Alison Ismail, who supported the original motion, was mandated by college to reverse her vote at the second council of term. The disaffiliation motion at Council was carried. Josh Reddaway, from Kings, argued that the issue is one for resolution by the student body and not Council, and a further motion was carried mandating a Michaelmas Term referendum.
Finally, a further motion was passsed, mandating the inclusion in the CUSU handbook, of information about the services of the anti-abortion group, Life, offers. Proposer Beata Klepacka, of New Hall, told TCS that Life had "a great deal to offer", women seeking services related to pregnancy and abortion and the expansion of the information available to students was a positive move.
National President of Life, Professor Jack Scarisbrick said, "as an aged alumnus of Cambridge University, I am delighted that Life has been recognised as being able to offer a valuable service." However, Ms Ismail expressed personal reservations over the inclusion of the Life contacts: "We should not point women in the direction of a centre which will make them feel guilty about abortion", she said.
The impassioned discussion has continued long after the original Council debates, as campaigners prepare for the referendum campaigns. Janet Mearns, National Secretary of the NAC, welcomed any moves towards affiliation, emphasising: "We are a campaigning organisiation. It is always helpful to have people affiliated, it makes our campaign stronger." Ms McClymont agreed: "Affiliation would be a useful resource for case workers. It is important to affiliate as this shows our active support. This should be a two way process."
However, serious concerns have been raised about affiliation. Sam Wolfendon, of Corpus Christi, a campaigner for disaffiliation at the second Council meeting this term, said, "Affiliation has an important symbolic value. CUSU would be officially pro-abortion." Anna Wilkins, of Life, told TCS that NAC would provide a "resource for pro-abortionists," adding that any valuable information that would be provided would be available even without affiliation. In response however, Ms Mearns of the NAC argued "we are against the term 'pro-abortion'. We are pro-choice. Currently the law has nothing to do with what a woman wants. It is the poorest women, many of whom are students, who lose out the most. The NHS has no obligation to carry out abortions. We must campaign for this to be obligatory."
Countering this, Clare Devlin, of New Hall, produced exerpts from the NAC booklet of 1984, which stated: "NAC believes that there should be no legal or medical restrictions on abortions, and this includes time limits." Ms Devlin said that such policies pointed to the dangerous "extreme views" of the NAC.
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