Choose Life is a pro-life club that seeks to promote respect for human life and human rights from conception. We believe that every loss of human life is tragic.
On Tuesday, October 6, we are hosting Jose Ruba of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, who will give a presentation entitled “Echoes of the Holocaust.” While no two atrocities are identical, parallels can often be drawn. The presentation will focus on how dehumanization and denial of personhood has justified some of the greatest atrocities the world has seen, including the Holocaust and abortion. The Holocaust was a major affront to the dignity of the human person, and resulted in a horrific loss of life, the tragedy of which cannot be described in words. Choose Life, through this event, fully recognizes that reality. Moreover, we recognize that abortion is also an affront to the dignity of the human person, and that the denial of personhood to the unborn is unjust and arbitrary.
This event, then, contributes to our mandate by recognizing and advocating for respect for all human life. Furthermore, it is fully in line with SSMU’s tenets of social justice, anti-oppression, and respect. We seek social justice for all human beings from conception, we work to expose and denounce the fatal discrimination facing the unborn (oppression), and we aim to promote respect for all human life.
I recognize that members of SSMU have differing views about what constitutes oppression and respect. Denying our right to provide a differing perspective on these terms is unacceptable in a community that embraces diversity and the freedoms of speech and assembly. Others who disagree with our club’s mandate and with the comparison of abortion and the Holocaust are free to voice that opinion. Demanding that we stop dialoguing and sharing our own views, however, is unjust and does not fall within SSMU’s anti-oppression mandate.
As a member of SSMU, I sincerely hope that the Students’ Society that is meant to represent the diversity of the student body will do everything in its power to allow this event to continue.
Natalie Fohl
U3 Biology & Political Science
President, founder, Choose Life