Abortion and the Academy

According to Canada’s National Post , the student union at York University has decided to table its proposed ban on student clubs that oppose abortion.

Gilary Massa, vice-president external of the York Federation of Students, said student clubs will be free to discuss abortion in student space, as long as they do it “within a pro-choice realm,” and that all clubs will be investigated to ensure compliance.

“You have to recognize that a woman has a choice over her own body,” Ms. Massa said. “We think that these pro-life, these anti-choice groups, they’re sexist in nature . . . The way that they speak about women who decide to have abortions is demoralizing. They call them murderers, all of them do . . . Is this an issue of free speech? No, this is an issue of women’s rights.”

Happily, the school’s administrators and many pro-choice students (including the editors of the York’s student newspaper) are opposing this decision as contrary to the university’s mission and not representative of the student body’s wishes. But the fact that a student union can unilaterally prohibit one side of the abortion debate is not a good sign for free speech in Canada’s universities.