Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Support Setting Up A Pro-Choice Society at UCC

Quoted From Indymedia (Alan Davis, Wednesday Jan 28, 2009):

"On Monday evening this week the Societies Guild at UCC rejected an application, backed by over 100 student signatures, to set up a pro-choice student society. The 'reason' the Societies Guild gave for their disgraceful decision was:

Your society application was brought before the Guild last evening. Unfortunately status was not approved. It is a decision that was ultimately made by a previous Guild and is being upheld. 'A society already exists which caters for debate in the area of abortion and choice'. Membership to this and all societies is open to all students in UCC. Thank you for your interest and I hope you join one of the many societies in UCC."


This is clearly absurd as the society that already exists is the anti-choice 'Students for Life' - this decision amounts to political censorship of the pro-choice message and must be overturned."


Students for Choice with the help of Cork Women's Right to Choose have been leafletting at UCC to raise awareness about the Guild's decision. We have created a petition and are collecting signatures to support an appeal process to set up a pro-choice society. We've collected over 100 additional signatures from UCC students and staff on campus to give to the members of the Societies Guild. We've created an online version of the petition as well, so please check it out and sign at: http://www.petitiononline.com/choice09/petition.html