Pro-life group under attack for its 'morally-founded opinions'
Ohio students were not happy with the fact that a pro-life group on campus was treated fairly, so they demanded, and achieved, a referendum vote on the matter.
Case Western Reserve University, located in Cleveland, Ohio, recently held an Undergraduate Student Government (USG) vote to allocate university funds to student organizations on campus, including Students for Life. In response, a group of students decided to petition against the vote, hoping for a referendum vote on Students for Life’s status.
The document states that funding should not be given to a group “whose mission revolves around reducing access to healthcare by means of guilting, shaming, and terrorizing vulnerable individuals.”
[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Students support abortions up to birth]
“The first amendment is paramount and important; however,” the dissents states, “we should be equally as worried about protecting our students’ right to privacy and due process as outlined in the fourteenth amendment.” The dissent further cites Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey as reasons SFL should not be given “the platform.”
The dissent further claims that “it’s coercive to present morally-founded opinions” on the issue of abortion.
The petition was also endorsed by the Feminist Collective at CWRU and Sunrise CWRU, a student organization aimed at stopping climate change with policies such as the Green New Deal. Needing 10 percent of the undergraduate student body to sign the petition to trigger a referendum, slightly fewer than 530 votes would be required, according to U.S. News.
“The petition ended up getting over 600 signatures,” commented USG’s Vice President of Public Relations, Alex Gould, explaining that there will be a referendum vote for the “whole student body.”
The referendum was sent to CWRU undergraduate students on May 4. To recall the decision of the USG, there must be a simple majority with at least 20 percent of the undergraduate student body voting, according to the USG Constitution.
According to Gould, they won’t know “the results of the referendum for another two weeks” after the vote.
“The pro-life generation and the pro-life movement is one of peace,” said Students for Life America President Kristan Hawkins, “we, after all, work every day to end the violence of abortion.”
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