London South Bank University student leafleting: the message must not be silenced

I went as part of a team of three to London South Bank University Fresher's Fair this week to distribute pro-life materials to new students, and anyone else that was willing to accept a leaflet.

As the abortion statistics show us, most mothers who have abortions are between 19-24 years old and unmarried. So it makes sense to make a special effort to bring the pro-life message to women and men in that age range.

It wasn't long before we faced opposition. A leaflet was handed to a man, who stopped to read it, then told me in an abrupt manner that I couldn't hand these leaflets out, even though we were standing on a public footpath. Then he spoke to two university security guards, telling them they had to stop us. The security guards explained that we were doing nothing illegal at all and could carry on. The disgruntled man (whom the security guards said was a member of staff at the university) tried to find out personal details from me, which was obviously refused (this was clearly a form of intimidation).

He then marched off, only to return 5 minutes later in search of more university security to complain to. I noticed the security staff getting irritated with him. Then he found two community support officers and spent 10 minutes complaining to them. However, they strolled off and he walked back. Clearly he didn't get what he wanted. He then stopped to take photos of us and the security staff (again, that subtle intimidation, which the security staff actually commented on) and then went off. As annoying as this sort of opposition and subtle intimidation are, there is sometimes something deeper behind it - possibly an abortion in which he was personally involved...who knows?

Many of the staff and students who passed by took a leaflet. There were the usual mixture of reactions, including one student who asked for some more for his society's stall (I know for a fact he was genuine). We'll be looking to do more pro-life work at the university in the coming year.

Although this leafleting is aimed at 'fresher' students, there is no reason why it shouldn't be happening all year around at as many universities as possible, together with things like letter writing and pro-life chains. However, it will mean that the person reading this post must actually take a lead and do it. You can't presume someone else will do it. You can't presume that people will hear the pro-life side somehow. You can't presume that the students you study with, live with, and socialise with, aren't already affected by abortion, or will be in the near future. Email me to get involved.