Choose Life has a pattern of engaging in questionable events, including displaying photos of fetuses at the crossroads, and more recently hosting a supposedly “non-political” group on campus that openly states on its web site that it wants to make abortion “unthinkable.”
Now Choose Life is planning an event for October 6, comparing abortion to the Holocaust, which is purely, on the face of it, insulting to an astoundingly large number of groups. SSMU can and should step in to stop this event by passing a motion calling for the administration to intervene and for SSMU to censure Choose Life. Frankly, I believe it should go further and revoke Choose Life’s club status – the group has clearly violated the portion of its constitution that SSMU requires stating that it shall “shall carry forth its mandate from an anti-oppressive standpoint.”
But really, this is about one question, which anyone who has supported Choose Life’s club status should ask themselves: is this what you wanted your SSMU fees to fund? If so, then by all means, continue to support Choose Life’s club status. If not, I ask you to reconsider. Because this isn’t about freedom of expression or of assembly, as many have argued, since Choose Life’s members could express themselves or organize outside of a SSMU club – this is about whether we as members of SSMU want to collectively fund Choose Life. I know I don’t.
Quinn Albaugh
U3 Political Science
Daily columnist