No to censorship in our universities.
In March, 2022 we started a petition for admission of the Pro-Life University Group Regensburg (directed to the Student Representative Council of the University of Regensburg)
We asked for the immediate admission of the pro-life university group Regensburg. Why?
Talking about abortion with their fellow students, making the issue of abortion a topic at their university and getting hearts to think about it – that’s why seven students want to found a university group at Regensburg University in 2021. But the “student spokesperson council”, which is responsible for recognising university groups, does not recognise their group. Even after asking three times, they give no reason for the rejection. “We are simply not wanted with our topic” says Stefan Landwehr, one of the students who wants to found the group.
Regensburg is not an isolated case. Since 2020, ProLife Europe has already been excluded from 6 universities in German-speaking countries: The student council of the TU Munich refused to admit the pro-life group, as did the “autonomous women* department” of the University of Wuppertal. At the University of Augsburg, the ProLife group has been waiting for admission for 1.5 years despite four requests. The Johannes Kepler University in Linz banned students from talking about abortion and at the University of Vienna an information stand was banned.
“ProLife Europe focuses on communicating scientific facts, risks of abortion and help in pregnancy conflict as needed. We do this in an appreciative and loving way. The most important thing is an open, free and non-judgemental dialogue about this controversial topic – regardless of any belief system. In no way does PLE violate the different university’s councils or departments guidelines”, says Manuela Steiner, Chairwoman of ProLife Europe e.V.
Therefore, we called on the Student Spokesperson Council for Freedom and Diversity of Opinion in October, 2022 to admit the Pro-Life student group at the University of Regensburg, backed up with 19.156 signatures, only to be once again completely ignored. We were given no justification.
