If you can’t physically have an abortion, you have no right to join an anti-abortion society

The Guild have approved the formation of UoB's first Pro-Life Society, and students have been divided as to the right to set up such a society.

Amongst the backlash, it is apparent that many of the supporters, as cisgendered males, will never have to go through an abortion due to, well, science.

And honestly, if you don't have a uterus and will never face the possibility of physically carrying an unwanted pregnancy, rendering yourself as nothing more than a mere vessel for nine months, you have no right to an opinion on the topic.

The glaring logo which adorns the already infamous Facebook group, complete with infant feet and a baby blue colouring, deliberately inspires anger and guilt in many of us who have had to face the possibility of an abortion.

The logo for the new group

Pro-Life activists seem to act as though pro-choice activists view abortion as a hobby. It is not a hobby, it is an agonising decision and process which remains with the woman for the rest of her life.

Abortions are never taken lightly. You genuinely think a woman takes one look at a positive test and thinks fuck that, I like my Circo nights too much? It takes weeks of tossing and turning, guilty feelings intermingled with self hatred and doubt, and this doesn't go away after the abortion either.

After all of this internal turmoil, when they make their way to the clinic, they are faced by a wall of pro-life activists, like the Guild has endorsed, calling them "infant murderers" and "selfish killers". Abortion will never be selfish. If a woman cannot provide a good enough life for herself or her baby after her pregnancy, an abortion could surely only be defined as a kindness.

I'm fully aware of basic human biology in knowing that a cisgendered male will be involved in the creation of an unwanted pregnancy, but unless you will actually face the possibility of sitting in a clinic surrounding by other pale-faced women, the words of these activists ringing in your ears, before being handed a pill or going through an invasive surgery which signals so much more than a terminated pregnancy, I do not believe you have any right to comment on the topic.

A post from the group

What sort of "life" are "pro-life" promoting when they are in support of forcing women to change and potentially destroy their lives through forcing them to carry on with unwanted and usually unhealthy pregnancies? Especially on a university campus, where many young women are in no position to carry on with an unwanted pregnancy, what sort of message are the group intending to send? We as women are already fed messages about the "evils" of abortion and body autonomy, and we don't need a further reminder on our own university campus.

In the words of Rachel Green, "no uterus, no opinion".