Abusive pro-abortion protestors forced police to send reinforcements to protect a Manchester Pro-Life Society event hosting Dr Dermot Kearney last Friday. “The pro-abortion fascist mob was out in force to intimidate and silence the Manchester University Pro-Life Students group this evening”, Dr Kearney posted later on X/Twitter.
The Manchester Pro-Life Society invited Dr Kearney to speak about abortion pill reversal last Friday on 28 March at the University of Manchester. The event location was known only to Society members and the Students’ Union (SU) but was evidently leaked.
Pro-abortion protestors, reportedly organised by the Feminist Society of the University of Manchester, subsequently formed a human barricade to bar members of the Society from entering the Students’ Union building that was hosting the talk.
The large group of up to fifty people turned up with banners, megaphones and chanted pro-abortion and anti-free speech slogans. They were given face masks by one individual to disguise their identities as they chanted obscenities, including “Our streets… our campus…” and “F*** the Church… F*** the State, we decide our own fate”.
Two members of the SU were also seen among the pro-abortion mob. Meanwhile, Dr Kearney and the other pro-life students relocated to the campus library for their own safety and to try to deescalate the situation.
Initially, the event was protected by a few security guards and around five police officers. When police reinforcements arrived on the scene around an hour and a half later, instead of the dispersing the mob, the event was cancelled by the University of Manchester on safety grounds.
Society members trapped inside the building were finally extricated and, along with the other pro-life students, were escorted away from the scene by the police.
A Manchester Pro-Life Society spokesperson told SPUC that this “caused discomfort since the weather was cold and some people didn’t have warm clothes.
“It also caused distress to some of the people present since the protestors were very loud, hostile and aggressive, with much swearing and direct slander… [and] displays of visceral religious hatred.”
The talk was ultimately held off campus at an impromptu venue.
In a defiant statement posted on Instagram, the Society said: “This shows the determination to the cause by our members and that no amount of opposition can break our spirit.”
Dr Kearney added the following on X:
Not the first time that Manchester pro-life students faced abusive threats
Last year, on 29 February, Manchester pro-life students required a police escort out of the Students’ Union after being surrounded by a mob of protesters making vicious chants that included, “Stay in there and die.”
Two female pro-life members reported that they were followed home, while another girl received a rape threat.
The shocking scenes also featured in the BBC documentary “Young, British and Anti-Abortion”, which recorded Madeline Page, the director of the Alliance of Pro-Life Students, being stalked by the mob.
“It’s actually quite a horrific thing that is happening to me right now”, Madeline told documentary maker Poppy Jay, who also said that she “wasn’t prepared for how hostile they [the protestors] were… The way they behaved towards her [Madeline] was unacceptable.”
Earlier that month, a petition that eventually gained over 20,000 signatures was launched anonymously calling on the Students’ Union to disband the Manchester Pro-Life Society, which had been founded in January 2024.
Some members of the Society attended SPUC’s Youth Conference this year, titled “Unmuted”, where they described their experiences and inspired delegates with their courage and refusal to be silenced by the pro-abortion mob.
The vilification of pro-life students and societies has become widespread around the UK in recent years and has received some media attention. In 2021, Exeter Students for Life received threats and a petition calling for them to be cancelled. In the same year, a pro-life stall at Oxford University’s Freshers’ Fair was trashed by students.
A National Student Survey found in 2023 that one in seven students feel that they are unable to express their views freely on UK campuses.
In 2022, a talk by a female SPUC staff member at the University of Edinburgh was disrupted by pro-abortion students with megaphones shouting, “Stop this talk right now… We are not allowing this to happen on our campus.” The SPUC speaker had been invited by students of the Edinburgh Life Society.
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