Pro-life group awarded affiliation with Student Union after rejection and delay

Aberdeen Life Ethics Society (ALES) is a group for pro-life students to meet and campaign on the issue of abortion.

Last week, they were allowed to be affiliated with the student body after the Aberdeen University Students’ Association was threatened with legal action on the grounds of discrimination based on belief.

The case against the Student Association will come to Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

Until last week, they were denied the privileges of affiliation with Aberdeen University Students’ Association, such as ease of room bookings and a place at freshers’ fair in September 2018 while the student body decided their verdict. The union’s delay also made networking ‘impossible’ to do on campus, according to a member of the society.

Alex Mason, a PhD student and Christian, told Premier the group were inconvenienced and that he thought it was ‘used as a way to shame pro-lifers, despite their views being legal and protected’.

He added that it was a ‘small vocal minority’ who wanted their exclusion from campus and that many who did not even agree with their stance on abortion did not think the pro-life group shouldn’t exist.

The Aberdeen University Students Association (AUSA) had a pro-choice policy which they said conflicted with the group’s aims. They said that the National Union of Students (NUS) also had a pro-choice policy and in March 2017 AUSA had a policy to…