Carleton University Student Council Votes to Ban Anti-Abortion Groups

We recently blogged about a movement in the student government of Carleton University to forbid anti-abortion student groups having any recognition, money or use of university facilities.

The issue came to a vote, and the Carleton University Students’ Association voted by a margin of 25 to 6 to support the proposal.

Those who wanted to ban anti-abortion speech gave the usual politically-correct reasons:

Council executives argued that campaigning to criminalize abortion, which has been legal in Canada for more than two decades, discriminates against women.

Some students agreed, including graduate student John Baglow, who spoke in favour of the motion.

“This campus is supposed to be about human rights, diversity, mutual respect,” Baglow said. “Well, there isn’t respect when you want to throw women into jail for choosing abortion.”

These, of course, are the sort of folks who would happily throw people in jail for owning a gun. And somehow, in the world of the politically correct, “respect” not only requires that one agree with a certain political position, it needs to be enforced by punishing people who don’t show it.

“Respect,” in other words, doesn’t extend to people having different moral or political views.

Carleton University itself takes a much more tolerant stance.

While the University said it respects “CUSA’s independent decision-making process,” it added that “The University, however, is not bound by the views or opinions held by the Carleton University Students’ Association.” The university states that “Student groups, both those recognized by CUSA and those that are not, have had and will continue to have the opportunity to book space on campus in accordance with Carleton’s existing policies and procedures.”

The more serious question, of course, is how Canadian society and a Canadian university produced such a bunch of nasty authoritarians as those running this Students’ Association.

And are we doing any better here in the U.S.?