Student union bans pro-life group from freshers’ fair

A barrister specialising in religious freedom has criticised a decision by Dundee University Students Association (DUSA) to ban a pro-life stall at its freshers’ fair and said he will take legal action against any English or Welsh university that attempts to do the same.

Following reports that the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) would not be allowed to host a stall at the Dundee University Freshers’ Fair, Neil Addison, National Director of the Thomas More Legal Centre, said: “I hope SPUC sue DUSA and certainly if any student union in England or Wales attempts to copy DUSA, the Thomas More Legal Centre will not hesitate to take legal action against them.”

He described the DUSA’s actions as “philosophically and legally wrong”.

He said: “Student unions are under a legal responsibility to ensure freedom of speech and opinion in their university and banning an organisation such as SPUC is contrary to that legal obligation.”

SPUC released a statement last week which alleged that the society had been banned on “spurious grounds” from the university’s Freshers’ Fair.
Rachel Kidd of SPUC Scotland said: “DUSA has quoted several sections of its constitution against SPUC, but none of those sections contains anything opposed by SPUC… From 2005 onwards, SPUC held a stall at freshers’ fair for eight consecutive years without any problems. The stall simply offered factual information on the development of the unborn child and real help to women who may find themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation.”

Ian MacKinnon, president of the DUSA, said SPUC was banned from the event because its campaigning against contraception, abortion and gay rights “directly conflict with the charitable objectives of DUSA”.

But Mr Addison dismissed the statement as “legal gibberish.” He said: “There is nothing in the DUSA Constitution which is in conflict with the purposes of SPUC… DUSA have followed the Stalinist approach of … assuming that they have the right to determine what ideas students are allowed to hear.”