epigram 26.10.2021
Features 10
Epigram interviews Bristol's Pro-Life Feminist Society
Epigram interviews the Pro-Life Feminist Society's former president. Holly Beaumont Co-Editor in Chief
Content Warning: This article contains themes of abortion, sexual assault and rape.
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said. ‘People don’t seem to see that support Other online criticism was men have a place which I find pergrounded in the Society’s inclusion sonally rather sad’. of men, with one student tweeting a Despite this, Maria maintained photo of their stall at Freshers' Fair that she does not mind this aspect and writing, ‘a man running this of being part of what she described stall you have to laugh’. to be a ‘controMaria did not understand why versial’ society. some people would take issue with a ‘Academic disman being on their committee. course is about ‘Just because you don’t have a having difficult chicken farm, it is good to have an opinion on animal This view was echoed on the rights, Society’s Facebook page in which I which, when asked about a think goes child conceived in the case of down the same line’, rape, the Facebook’s admin she said. replied, ‘We simply don’t think ‘First of one crime justifies an even all, he is involved in the conversations. pregnancy. He has made his contriIt’s a good way bution to that. It’s about protecting
ollowing the SU Welcome Fair that gave a platform to Bristol societies to engage with new and returning students, Epigram interviewed the University of Bristol’s Pro-Life Feminist Society’s former President and current Media Representative, Maria Rupprecht. In the time since the interview, the Society has come into focus within the student community: many have argued for its abolition, seeing a contradiction between pro-life and feminist beliefs. Maria, however, tells Epigram she believes the two terms to be 'absolutely compatible'. The Society’s Facebook page states that: ‘We deny the lie that to achieve equality, women must be able to end their own child's life for convenience. It disempowers women to tell them they cannot succeed in the world without being able to kill.’ The Pro-Life Society’s stance on this and decision to call themselves ‘Feminist’ has led to several comments of disagreement online. One Bristol student, Tilly Blais, commented on their Facebook page, stating: ‘Being a Feminist and Pro-life is COMPLETELY contradictory.' Another student, Charlotte Wood, commented: ‘Stripping a woman of her rights is not Feminism.’ the human right of life and I think The Society’s stance on this is everyone can have a say in that’, she also in stark contrast with the Bristol Intersectional Feminist Society 'It's about protecting the human and Women’s right of life and I think everyone Network. In their can have a say in that' open letter to the SU, IFemSoc declared that continued. they ‘take issue with the use of the Given some of the negative social term ‘feminist’, as the group have media posts regarding the Society’s a focus on merely the single issue presence at Freshers' Fair, I asked of restricting reproductive rights’. Maria about the reception they The first thing that the letter calls faced. for is ‘an official change of name to ‘We had some positive responses remove ‘feminist’ from their title’. but some people made it very clear This letter has since been signed that they don’t agree with us’, she by over 500 Bristol students in
to grow personally’, she said. She also spoke positively about her time with the Society and encouraged new students to join. ‘It's amazing!’, she said. ‘For those who have the pro-life position already, or those who are undecided, our society provides a friendly basis to discuss those questions.’ One topic that Maria found particularly difficult to speak on, however, was that of the abortion laws in some U.S. states. Specifically, we asked her about the Texan abortion laws that made abortion illegal after a heartbeat can be detected and the Arkansas abortion laws that have banned abortion even in the case of
rape. She tried her best to sum up her position, stating, ‘Well, I am against abortion so, it’s not a question of whether I think it’s fair, maybe I cannot say. I don’t know how to
individual is a solution to a crime.’ When asked to clarify whether abortion following rape was acceptable, she stated it was not. This view was echoed on the Society’s Facebook page in which, when
asked about a child conceived in the case of rape, the Facebook’s admin replied, ‘We simply don’t think one crime justifies an even more serious one which also is against an innocent human being’. Maria admitted that she would struggle to afford to have a baby in the U.S, branding the '$5000' cost of having a baby through hospital costs ‘unthinkable’. When reflecting on the UK she later went on to say that financial difficulties did not justify an abortion procedure: ‘I just think it's always [financially] doable’. Maria, however, concluded that answer this question and I think it’s in spite of her stance she does not okay to say that I don’t know how blame anyone’ and believes ‘fundato answer that question’. mentally, With ‘People don’t seem to see that people reference to men have a place which I find always the abortion try to laws that personally rather sad’. do their have banned best’. abortion ‘I just can speak for myself, I just even in the case of rape, Maria said, would not want to live with that de‘I think it would be worse for me cision and I wouldn't want anyone to consider myself a murderer than else to have to live with it either’, give birth to the child. It’s not the she said. baby’s fault’. Epigram approached The Universi‘We have two crimes; we have ty of Bristol’s IFemSoc as well as the the crime of rape and the crime of Women’s Network for comment, but abortion. I don’t think taking it out both declined to comment. on an even more helpless human