Dear campus activists who’ve opposed Choose Life this year:
The kids behind Choose Life are in the minority here. They are small in numbers and, as events on campus have shown in recent months, there’s a strong consensus against their tactics and the way they do business. Even people who are generally opposed to abortion wrote into The Daily saying that Choose Life and their affiliates give the pro-life movement a bad name, and are, on the whole, kind of tacky.
Don’t encourage them.
Given their numbers and the scale of their actions, without all the hype, the wind would have gone out of their sails a long time ago.
Which is why I find this GA motion to categorically ban any pro-life group from SSMU particularly distressing. The wording of the motion defines groups with a pro-life ideology as inherently oppressive, a leap of logic that ploughs over any differentiation between all the people out there who aren’t too keen on the idea of abortion: “The SSMU further resolves to condemn any group, student association, or organization whose goals and methods compromise the safety and health of any person or engage in acts of discrimination such as but not limited to pro-life groups.”
You are only giving the people behind Choose Life ammunition and legitimizing their claim to being oppressed by the Left. This idea is central to the way they’re framing themselves as conservative underdogs being put down by an intolerant pro-abortion majority.
You glorify Choose Life by providing them with the epic, forceful opposition their self-image requires. Meet their actions with disregard and disinterest instead of indignation, and this self-image won’t hold water.
If you think their tactics are beneath your dignity, do not dignify them. The best way to oppose people you violently disagree with is to put them in their place. You can achieve this, first, by staying classy and keeping your place firmly in the moral high ground. Proposing censorship has you losing it pretty fast. Please don’t let this lapse pass into policy.