Abortion Debate Censored at Christ Church College

By: Megan Grier

At Christ Church College, which is part of the University of Oxford in England, a group called Oxford Students for Life was going to host a debate about “abortion culture," with the pro side being argued for by historian Tim Stanley and the opposing side argued for by editor Brendan O’Neil. A protest was planned by OxRev Fems, but the day before the debate, college censors voted to rescind the group’s permission to use the Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, causing the Oxford Students for Life to cancel their event. The OSFL invited WomCam to co-host a debate with them, but they were not open to the idea, instead suggesting they find alternative events. It was wrong of the censors to vote to rescind their permission. First of all, the debate was voluntary, so if people didn’t want to hear it, they didn’t have to. Secondly, it was a debate, so both sides were being presented. This actually would have been the fairest, most intellectual way to talk about this issue on the campus, but instead they were shut down because some people didn’t agree with the group that was putting it on. This definitely goes against Lewis’ idea about freedom for the thought we hate. OSFL should not have been silenced just because a lot of people disagreed with them, especially when they were giving equal speaking time and privileges to the arguments that they themselves disagreed with.

The article that I got this information from is here: http://www.cherwell.org/news/college/2014/11/17/christ-church-refuses-to-hold-quotabortion-culturequot-debate