Cardiff students voted to oppose a motion to become an officially pro-choice organisation at an AGM meeting on Thursday afternoon. The majority was so strong to reject the motion that the votes weren’t counted. This is the second time a motion of this nature has been unsuccessfully put forward.
Formalised by Rachael Melhuish, the chair of the Cardiff Womens’ Association, the proposal called for CUSU to support campaigns for accessible and safe abortions for students. When contacted, Melhuish declined to comment, as did Pro-Choice Cardiff, a local pro-choice group.
The motion was opposed by Jonathan O’Connell, president at Cardiff Students for Life, who told the Catholic Herald, “This motion simply cannot be allowed to pass. The university environment has long been a bastion of free speech, which the proposed motion seeks to attack. There are huge implications in enforcing a single ideology or political viewpoint across the whole student populace.”