After removing our stand under the cover of night, the KSU – Kunsill Studenti Universitarji has allowed us back on our stand but banned items discussing abortion. Despite around 500 people in Malta accessing abortions every year, amongst them youths and university students, KSU claims that abortion is too “contentious” of an issue to be discussed at Freshers’ Week, and that doing so is a “disservice to the entire debate”. This is a pathetic and anti-feminist excuse considering the many “contentious” issues we work on.
University is meant to be the hub of discussion, and banning students from talking about stigmatised issues like abortion only fuels the existing taboo. Furthermore, KSU is a full member of the European Students’ Union which in a Resolution at BM84 affirmed that safe and legal abortion should be enshrined in law and that vulnerable individuals should be able to access abortion safely and without intimidation. It is thus ironic and unacceptable that KSU is attempting to censor discussion on abortion during one of the University’s most important weeks.
The pamphlets on our stand containing information on family planning services, contraception and abortion are completely legal and safe. On the contrary, for at least 8 consecutive years and as recently as last year, KSU accepted funds from the Life Network Foundation for a prominent position during Freshers’ Week where they lured students with free doughnuts and slushies in exchange for deliberately wrong misinformation on abortion. This included promoting the baseless and potentially fatal procedure of so-called ‘abortion reversal’.
Not only have student organisations been relegated to a crowded tent away from the main quad, but KSU is also policing the material provided at our stands, undermining the entire concept of the University as a safe space for debate and critical-thinking.
This is not our first time being censored at Freshers’ Week, and we will certainly not bow down to censorship now. We remain steadfast in our fight for social justice.
We will be here today and tomorrow until 3:30pm. Visit us to know more about our organisation, especially our work on abortion.
