The controversy surrounding abortion is not a new debate in Victoria, be it on campus or in the community. Choosing a side, either pro-life or pro-choice, divides people, and with a pro-life organization holding a vigil in town, the debate is on people’s minds as strongly as ever.
Pro-life group 40 Days for Life is holding a vigil until March 20 outside the Vancouver Island Women’s Clinic in an attempt to spread their message. Here on campus, Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) women’s director Rachael Grant stands on the other side of the debate, but she feels that keeping the conversation happening between the two sides is important.
“I am personally a very pro-choice person, but I don’t know about changing the conversation necessarily. I just think that it’s important to have conversations, and I think education is important,” she says. “And I think that having access to services like abortion is crucial.”
While the debate is still going strong, it’s not one typically heard and spoken about here at Camosun.
“That’s not something I’ve seen come up very often, although we do work with various partners like Island Sexual Health and various non-profits that do advocacy around town,” says Grant. “That’s not necessarily outside the scope of conversations that happen at the Women’s Collective, but not something that I’ve come across. I’ve been active for three years now, and it hasn’t really been a prominent conversation.”
Where your student fees go
Whether or not Camosun students realize it, some of their student fees go to supporting one side of the debate. Every Camosun student is a member of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and pays membership dues through their student fees. The CFS has a policy that states that part of the money that students pay goes toward promotional and educational material in support of pro-choice campaigns.
This policy also states that the CFS will support any member student societies if they choose to deny pro-life student groups access to funding and the space to form a pro-life student group (the CCSS has not denied a pro-life group the opportunity to be an official group on campus).
The CFS did not respond to Nexus after multiple requests for an interview about this policy by deadline.
We took this policy to Camosun students to find out their thoughts on it.
“I think [the policy] is a little convoluted, but it’s definitely better than the opposite,” says second-year Pre-Social Work student Olivia Bing. “It’s really awesome because the pro-life protesters are usually really intrusive. They’ve done it up at UVic, and I don’t really think it’s a place to do that. You don’t know the kind of emotion it’s going to evoke from someone. So I think it’s definitely good to be inclusive.”
Not being aware of this policy and not having a choice as to where their money goes are the main issues for the students we spoke with, although no one was against the policy.
“Yeah, I’m all for it. If it’s helping move toward change, I’m okay with it,” says first-year Visual Arts student Rheanna Bruce. “It’s kind of mixed feelings, but in the end I am pro-choice.”
University Transfer student Pierce Newman says that it’s “not a bad choice” for something that will cost him more money through his student fees.
“I would be much more up in arms about something like the vice president or president getting a new office, or something like that,” he says. “So I think it’s great in a way that they’ve chosen that.”
Grant says she hasn’t analyzed all of the CFS’ policies in depth, but she was aware of the pro-choice decisions the CFS has been making. In regards to denying a pro-life group access to form on campus, Grant says it’s behaviour-dependent.
“Anyone can hold any opinion; it’s what you do with that opinion,” she says. “What we’ve seen is other student unions, with clubs and groups forming that are pro-life, it’s what those groups tend to engage in, spreading information and images that are very triggering, potentially, and that are inaccurate,” says Grant.
Grant says that because of that history of behaviour, there is hesitancy surrounding pro-life groups on campus.
“So I believe at the Camosun College Student Society, if we had a group apply of that nature, they wouldn’t be denied, but they would be watched, because there is a long history of groups of this nature engaging in behaviour that makes students feel unsafe and perpetuates misinformation,” she says.
CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte is familiar with the CFS policy and feels that it’s “completely acceptable.”
“The Canadian Federation of Students, both federally and provincially, are declared pro-choice organizations,” he says.
The Debate
National Campus Life Network (NCLN) is a pro-life organization that mentors students on Canadian campuses and advocates for human-rights issues. They also aim to support pregnant women by equipping students with resources and training, and by coordinating national campaigns and on-campus events. NCLN has done work at the University of Victoria but has not set anything up at Camosun.
NCLN executive director Anastasia Pearse says her own personal values align directly with the organization’s views on abortion.
“We consider ourselves to be a pro-life organization, and we believe that all human beings have human rights and value and are therefore worthy of the same right to life as you and I, regardless of their abilities, circumstances they find themselves in, or their age,” she says. “And human life begins at conception; therefore anything that directly and intentionally kills an innocent human being from that point onward is wrong. So because of this we specifically address issues such as abortion and euthanasia.”
NCLN opposes the CFS policy that offers support to student societies who choose to deny pro-life groups the right to form on campus.
“I think that these organizations say that they can, in that policy, alienate specific groups of students,” says Pearse. “What they need to do is ensure that diversity is encouraged on their campuses. I think that with controversial issues, the solution is not to censor one side, but rather to encourage the debate, especially on campus.”
Opposition to their cause is something that Pearse and the NCLN are familiar with, but it doesn’t stop them from being vocal and forthcoming about what they believe in. Pearse says that pro-life groups shouldn’t be prohibited from being on campus because they hold a view that isn’t popular amongst college students.
“Just because they hold an unpopular belief doesn’t mean that they should not be allowed on campus,” says Pearse, “because then many clubs would also have to be denied or silenced because they are the minority or hold an unpopular belief.”
The NCLN says they aren’t looking for any “special treatment”; they just want to be able to give their side of the discussion without being censored in this debate.
“We’re just looking for the same treatment as any other club,” says Pearse. “And so that means being able to share our message on campus, being allowed to have access to the same resources as any other club, and being encouraged to engage in open and respectful dialogue with other students.”
The CCSS’ Turcotte approaches the matter diplomatically and says he keeps his personal views out of the equation when discussing this matter.
“I think it’s important for others to be able to differentiate how they personally feel about something from how they professionally or from a societal point of view look at something,” he says. “I actually come from a fairly religious background and so my personal views on the subject, and whether or not I would encourage anyone personally to get an abortion, is a different issue. I don’t believe it’s appropriate for me to be telling other people what to do.”
Despite the CFS making policies about it that directly impact students, Turcotte thinks this issue should not be a campus problem, or one that any student society should have to deal with.
“Student unions should try and stay away from that debate as much as possible, because it tends to divide members,” he says. “You have members that come from various backgrounds; religious, non-religious, different ethnic backgrounds, where there are still various points of view on this subject. But, ultimately, I think that student societies do need to stand up for a woman’s right to choose. And that was something that the Supreme Court of Canada decided when it threw out the existing abortion laws.”
The Belief
“I wish there wasn’t a need for abortion,” says 40 Days for Life Victoria representative Alexander Berns. “I wish society was back like it was when I was a kid growing up; you gave your bus seat up for a pregnant woman, you opened doors for a pregnant woman, you saw a pregnant woman or knew of a pregnant woman in your neighbourhood, it’s almost like automatically by virtue of being pregnant, they had first place in everything.”
40 Days for Life is in the midst of their local vigil outside the Victoria Women’s Clinic. The vigil includes prayer, fasting, and public outreach.
“It’s called a prayer vigil,” says Berns. “It’s normally held at the intersection of Helmcken and the Old Island Highway, across from the View Royal Square, because that’s where the abortions take place, and we’ve decided that we’d tackle the women’s clinic.”
The Vancouver Island Women’s Clinic declined to comment to Nexus about the 40 Days for Life organization.
When asked about pro-choice organizations, Berns says that “they’re all children of God, and I can’t denounce what God has made; if I do that, I’m not a very good Christian at all.”
“If I don’t see with them eye-to-eye, that’s okay. I don’t have to like what they stand for, but I do have to treat them with dignity, and that goes for the Vancouver Island Women’s Clinic,” says Berns. “It’s a service that’s legal in Canada. We wish it didn’t need to be legal, or that there wasn’t an environment where it becomes profitable to operate such a clinic. I think it reflects back on our whole society that has failed somewhat, and we should change that around.”
Not taking the violent or invasive approach that some claim to typically see from pro-life groups, Berns and 40 Days for Life say they want to remain peaceful and respectful.
“We pray. That’s all we’re allowed to do; that’s all that we promote,” says Berns. “And then any resources that we discover that are available locally, we present them to anyone that comes and asks. There are resources out there to help, and to help her finish her degree or whatever it is that’s making her lean toward having an abortion. There are many reasons, many reasons. And we respect each and every single one of them.”
Grant opposes the 40 Days for Life organization and has a different opinion on the severity of their protests, vigils, and methods.
“I find it’s unfortunate that folks believe that holding protests and vigils of this nature, to protest outside of an abortion clinic, accomplishes anything. Like I said, it’s about conversation, regardless of what I feel about their views. Holding a sign and demonizing women accessing healthcare does not accomplish anything. Regardless of their stance, I don’t find their methods at all effective; they don’t do anything but demonize women accessing healthcare.”
The deep-rooted debate about abortion on local campuses and off is not one with an end in sight. For Grant, abortion is a health-care service that people rely on, and it should be available to everyone who needs it.
“It’s a human right to be able to take care of your body,” she says. “Why this is a controversy is concerning to me, the fact that’s it’s still a controversial issue when we have the research and accessibility to information on abortion that we do. But it’s clearly ignorance to feel that it’s okay to demonize abortion the way people do.”