Thursday March 25, 2010
Discrimination against New Zealand Pro-Life Club by Student Union Overturned
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, March 25, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An eight-year-old policy specifically targeting pro-life clubs has been overturned at Auckland University this week, according to a media release from ProLife New Zealand.
“Between 2002 and 2010 the Auckland University Students Association (AUSA) has banned any pro-life club affiliating. The AUSA had a special rule on their policy books that applied only to people who want to start a pro-life club on campus,” said Simeon Brown, an AUSA member who aimed to start a pro-life club.
“This special rule dictated that pro-life clubs can only apply to become an official club at an annual general meeting (AGM) – but those meetings happen only once every year.”
“But anyone who wants to start any other club can apply to become an official club at a Student Forum. These meetings happen weekly.”
Brown explained that in effect this rule meant that anyone wanting to start a pro-life club at Auckland University has only one opportunity every 365 days to try and gain official club status, whereas any other club simply had to wait seven days to make an application.
“This has been clearly discriminatory and designed to shut down debate on abortion,” Brown said.
This year’s AGM saw Brown’s determination to overturn the discriminatory policy come to fruition.
An agenda item was submitted by Brown and seconded by AUSA Vice President Joe McCrory at Wednesday’s AUSA annual general meeting. McCrory explained the purpose of the motion, saying that it was to allow for freedom of speech and equality of views rather than to state whether abortion is right or wrong, and a vote was taken.
Out of the several hundred AUSA members present, only 3 opposed the motion and 1 abstained, leading to near unanimous support and the rule against pro-life clubs being overturned.
Pro-life clubs are now able to affiliate with the AUSA like any other club, with no discrimination against their point of view. With the ban now overturned, the proposed pro-life club can now affiliate through the normal process at a Student Forum, said ProLife New Zealand.
Further information is available on the ProLife New Zealand website here.