Fight for Life
Tensions were running high at OUSU Council on Friday over a motion to repeal the current ban on the charity Life advertising in OUSU publications. The motion was defeated overwhelmingly by 89 votes to 9.
Life is a anti-abortion organisation with an office in Oxford, distinct from the Oxford University Pro-Life Society, whose president Lucy Underwood, proposed the motion. The ban has been in place since 2000 when investigations by the OUSU Ethics Committee concluded that its advice was "directive" and therefore contrary to student union policy, which promotes choice. Although Life's counselling service will be mentioned in OUSU's "Unplanned Pregnancy Guide" this year.
The claim that advertising Life would promote choice is sharply disputed by OUSU VP (Women) Catherine Wallis who believe that "From a welfare point of view, I'm very pleased that the LIFE motion failed as I feel it would have been irresponsible of OUSU to advertise a service which could have been extremely damaging to students unsure of what to do about an unplanned pregnancy and seeking impartial information."
Her criticism of Life rested on the facts that "their 'counsellors' are not required to have a counselling qualification, but are required to be members of the campaigning branch of LIFE which is clearly anti-abortion, I do not feel that they are suitable as a non-directive counselling service and I would never recommend them as such."
This is refuted by Oxford Life counsellor Paula Flynn who told The OxStu that Life provide "highly professional, non-directive counselling which is not intended to impose a pro-life ethic on clients or make any sort of judgement".
During the Council meeting people involved in OUSU gave evidence of false calls to the Life helpline recently, reporting that the advice they received was in many cases "directive" and "upsetting".
Lucy Underwood told The OxStu: "It is very encouraging that the PV Women is adding Life to the Unplanned Pregnancy Handbook. We hope for more dialogue and co-operation between pro-life students and the VP-Women, but we are still not satisfied with the ongoing discrimination against Life by OUSU." The ban on Life is up for renewal in 2005.
For more, see Focus.
30th Oct 2003