Life issues group back

By Erin Rankin

With their probation period over, the Life Issues Awareness group is posed to launch a lecture series on campus.

According to campus groups administrator Leatrice Spevack, the end of LIA’s probationary period means the group is now under less scrutiny and is free to hold off-campus events.

The RyeSAC board of directors approved LIA by a 12-8 secret ballot vote on Sept. 30. At the time the LIA said they hoped to have speakers who would discuss abortion from a medical, not moral, perspective.

The first lecture of LIA’s series was on stem cell research and was scheduled to take place last Tuesday, but was cancelled due to the weather.

The scheduled speaker was Bridget Campion, a moral theologian and an assistant professor at St. Augustine’s Catholic Seminary.

Campion says her lecture was going to focus on the broader moral issues surrounding reproductive technology.

However, Campion says the abortion debate invariably comes up during her lectures.

The speaker says she prefers to avoid the “minefield” that is the abortion debate, but she didn’t mince words while discussing the controversial topic with The Eyeopener.

“I think abortion is a violent assault on a woman’s body and society is intolerant to pregnancy,” said Campion. “I think some time from now humanity will recognize that unborn children are one of the most marginalized populations and have been treated as Jews were treated in the concentration camps.”

Upon LIA’s approval, RyeSAC President Ken Marciniec said he was concerned about the views the group advocates.

While Campion’s lecture did not take place, the coordinator for the Ryerson Women’s Centre was angered when she found a poster announcing the first lecture on the bulletin board outside the Women’s Centre.

“I was very upset when I saw where the poster had been stuck,” said Rebecca Rose. “It seems to me that this is the same ‘anti-choice’ group that was turned down last year only with a different name.”

Despite repeated phone calls, LIA said they did not receive enough time to comment on the story.