Urjita Mainali, Contributing Writer
Recently, there has been a growing number of demonstrations against abortion held by non-student organizations on VCU’s campus. These protestors often bring signs and flyers that provide inaccurate and insensitive information regarding pregnancy and gestation, as well as the medical procedure of abortion.
These groups implement shame tactics based on largely religious or otherwise moral guilt, and inform their assertions with inaccurate claims that generate fear. Most recently, they held a demonstration in front of an academic building in a manner that made it difficult, if not impossible, for some students to avoid without missing out on their paid education.
VCU, as both an academic and medical institution, has a responsibility to protect its young student population from shame and medical misinformation, which has recently been identified as a major public health concern, according to Springer Nature Link.
In allowing these protests to continue, VCU has platformed this misinformation and stigma, endangering the physical and emotional health of students, without assurance that they are well-informed on issues of reproductive health.
Without these considerations, VCU has inadvertently platformed demonstrations that could risk student mental health and lead them to question major personal health decisions in ways that could have extreme consequences.
These protestors are usually unaffiliated with the school, which begs the question of not only why they are allowed on campus to shame students’ personal medical decisions, but also why they have selected this location to host their protest.
The entire city of Richmond is available for public protest, yet in the time since I transferred here last fall, I have yet to see such a demonstration off campus. It concerns me that these groups have selected a location that targets a young demographic — those especially vulnerable to shame and stigma.
There will always be groups on campus that disagree with one another, especially with a student population of this size. However, these demonstrations often do not involve students, who are themselves beholden to rules of demonstration set by the university, according to the VCU Dean of Student Advocacy Office. As such, these groups do not reflect the voice and beliefs of VCU’s student body.
Students must place trust in the institution to which they are affiliated, not only to provide them with quality education, but in the case of undergraduate students especially, to make decisions that keep their health and safety in mind. This responsibility for student well-being is one that has been adopted by the administration, yet neglected in this respect.
Perhaps the school either cannot or will not interfere with the demonstrations. However, in this case, it is the responsibility of the school to both prepare themselves and the students to not be harmed by the presence of these groups.
The university ought to ensure that students are able to avoid these groups and their demonstrations if they so choose by informing them of not only when they will occur and where, but how they can avoid them, in addition to providing access to accurate health information and education.