An anti abortion club at Auckland University may be disaffiliated after students complained about being harassed by its members.
Prolife Auckland was affiliated in 2011 after the removal of an 8 year ban against pro-life clubs.
Auckland University Student Association president Arena Williams has called for a special general meeting next month, which could see ProLife Auckland being barred from associating itself with the university.
An announcement for the meeting said the association would consider whether the “Prolife Club be disaffiliated for propagating harmful misinformation [sic]”.
“Recently we’ve received complaints from students after [ProLife Auckland] handed out fliers at the campus,” said Williams.
“On the fliers there was information which some felt was pressuring them into making different decisions than they normally would.”
The “Right to Know” flier carries the slogan: “Hands up if you’ve heard this before: ‘Abortion is a safe, simple medical procedure’.”
Williams said it was “quite uncommon” for clubs to be disaffiliated, but she said ProLife wasn’t being treated unfairly.
Meanwhile, Michael Otto, in the most recent New Zealand Catholic, reports that in February staff a Christchurch Women’s hospital gave a woman inquiring about abortion two pieces of literature one of which was a pamphlet which uses language of “love,compassion and faith to justify a decision to terminate an unborn child”.
The New Zealand Catholic quotes Sandra Martin, a Pregnancy Centre counsellor at John Paul II Centre for Life as describing the pamphlet as “shocking and very sad”
“The twisting of words around faith, love and compassion in a highly emotive way are of great concern as they can desensitise the woman to what is really happening” she said.
Source
- Auckland Now
- Pro Life Auckland Re-affiliates
- New Zealand Catholic – Not yet available online