A pro-life student society at the University of Manchester was blocked from speaking to students for around four hours after protesters positioned themselves in front of its stall at the university’s Societies Fair.
The incident took place on 25 September at Manchester Academy 1 where students were attending the final day of the university’s three-day Societies Fair. Protesters stood directly in front of the Pro-Life Society’s stall holding a banner stating, “DESTROY PRO-LIFE SOC”, while handing out leaflets and speaking to students.
The protesters included members of Manchester Leftist Action, who displayed QR codes directing students to an Instagram account opposing the society and to MSI Reproductive Choices, an abortion provider and campaign organisation. A collection bucket was also used to raise money for MSI UK.
Three representatives of the Pro-Life Society, including its president, remained behind the protesters at their stall.
The society said the demonstration significantly restricted its ability to engage with students and prevented others from freely approaching its stand.
“We were very disappointed that the protestors blocked our stall during Fresher’s fair, since this limited our expression of free speech and prevented other students from being able to approach the stall,” a society spokesperson said.
According to the society, the protesters remained in front of the stall for approximately four hours, despite Students’ Union staff asking them to move so students could access it.
The confrontation reflects the increasingly polarised debate over abortion on university campuses. The Pro-Life Society argues that unborn children are human beings whose lives possess inherent value and should not be deliberately ended. Its presence on campus gives students an opportunity to hear that argument, question it, or challenge it through debate.
Manchester Leftist Action defended the protest, accusing the university of failing to confront what it described as “bigotry and dangerous pseudoscience”. The group said its actions were intended to oppose the Pro-Life Society and support abortion access. It claimed that more than £100 was raised during the demonstration for MSI UK.
The group also stated: “If the Pro-Life Society attempts to garner support on campus, we will be there to make sure that their efforts are in vain.”
The incident raises questions about whether a university committed to open discussion can accommodate disagreement on one of the most serious moral questions of our time.
The Pro-Life Society is an officially recognised University of Manchester Students’ Union society. Its stated purpose is to promote the dignity of human life. Students who disagree with its position remain free to argue against it, but physically preventing the society from reaching other students risks turning a debate about the value of unborn human life into an attempt to silence one side altogether.
For a university, that should be a serious concern. Controversial ideas are not defeated by blocking them from view. They are defeated, if at all, by allowing students to hear them, question them, and decide for themselves.
Michael Robinson, SPUC Executive Director said “Universities should be places where difficult and deeply contested questions can be discussed openly, not places where one side of a debate can be physically prevented from reaching students. Students have every right to disagree with the Pro-Life Society and to make their case forcefully, but disagreement should be expressed through speech and debate rather than by blocking access to a society’s stall.
Whatever their views on abortion, students deserve the opportunity to hear different perspectives, ask questions and make up their own minds. If universities are serious about free expression and intellectual diversity, that principle must apply even when the views being expressed are controversial or unpopular.”
