Controversial pro-life society at University of Manchester founded by a male president who 'opposes abortion' shares photo of its first official meeting after the event was met by thousands of protesters

• The society held its first meeting on the university campus this week
• READ MORE: Female students at the University of Manchester say a ‘deeply troubling’ pro-life society founded by a male president who ‘opposes abortion’ makes them ‘fear for their safety’  

A controversial pro-life society which left female students at the University of Manchester ‘fearing for their safety’ has held its first meeting – which was met by fierce protests.

The Manchester Pro Life Society, which was established to ‘create a pro-life culture on campus’ shared an image to its official Instagram page to ‘thank everyone’ for standing up for ‘life and free speech on campus’.

After the society received criticism for appointing a male president and a male treasurer as pressure to dissolve the group began to mount, its committee proceeded with arranging its first meeting.

A photo of the first meeting, which took place on Thursday evening, was posted on the Manchester Pro Life Society’s Instagram page – in which 17 of the 23 attendees were male, while just six were female.

The picture was captioned: ‘Thank you everyone who came to our first talk! It was great to meet so many of you tonight. We will continue to boldly stand up for life and free speech on campus’.

Upon seeing this image, one viewer noted the attendees were ‘90% fellas’ in a comment on the post – which appears to have now been deleted.

The Manchester Pro Life society held its first meeting on Thursday evening and posted a photo of the group of attendees – showing a staggeringly high proportion of men at the event

As the event took place on the University of Manchester Campus, it attracted huge protests from students who are calling for the society to be dissolved, organised by the Stop Manchester Pro Life group.

Members posted videos to Instagram capturing the action, in which hundreds of students can be seen demonstrating near their student union while supporters shouted ‘shut it down’.

Speaking on the event, a rep said: ‘Huge thanks to everyone who showed up last night and to all the people who helped make it happen. So overwhelmed with the support and so grateful to every single one of you!’

After branding the night a ‘complete success’, they added there had been a scuffle between ‘a couple of drunk boys’ during the event – but claimed the men involved had no connection to the union.

The speaker added: ‘We co-operated fully with the legal observers there was no obstruction of police escorting the society out of the building despite them being unnecessarily rough with the crowd’.

The group revealed they were keen to stage another demonstration soon – as part of measures to ‘disband’ Manchester Pro Life Society.

The Stop Manchester Pro-Lie movement organised a rally on the evening of the controversial society’s first meeting

They concluded: ‘Next week we will be meeting with the SU and getting the ball rolling on a vote to disband the society, as well as implementing the measures put forward in our demands.

‘Again, thanks so much to all of you and a huge well done for last night’.

Manchester Pro Life Society – which launched on January 11 and has a male president and male treasurer – says it aims to ‘create a pro-life culture on campus, to engage students on life issues and promote respect for the dignity of human life from conception’.

However its existence has caused such anger that a petition was opened to dissolve its activities on February 12 – and has since racked up over 16,000 signatures.

The petition, which was first posted by an anonymous student, says they are ‘deeply troubled by the potential harm that could be caused by our university’s Pro-Life Society’ and encourages people to sign it ‘if you believe every woman should have her right respected without fear or stigma within our university community’.

However, the University of Manchester’s student union has said the society was established within the rules of its society registration process.

The Stop Manchester Pro-Life group organised a protest against the Pro-Life Society on the eve of its first meeting

The petition, posted on Change.org claims the the male-run society ‘adds to an already prevalent stigma surrounding abortion, a legal right in our country’.

It added: ‘Women at our university should not have to face additional pressure or judgement on such personal matters.’

As the anonymous writer implores people to sign the petition, they argue the society ‘has potential to cause distress among students who may require access to abortion services now or in future’.

The society’s president is George Vincent, a History of Art student who lists G.K Chesterton’s St Francis of Assisi as his ‘Desert Island Discs’ book that he would take with him if he found himself banished to a remote part of the world.

In October 2023, Vincent spoke to the Guardian about his pro-life views as he took part in an experiment where he had dinner with a man who holds different political opinions.

He said: ‘I recognise how much pain there must be for a woman in that situation. But I don’t think an abortion solves that problem, it doesn’t make that trauma go away.

‘We need to support them. And if that means adoption, we shouldn’t ostracise people for giving up their child.’

The society’s treasurer is Jacob Karinatan, a medicine student whose book of choice is Lord of the Rings.

A female student at the University of Manchester previously told the Independent that the establishment of the society was like ‘the beginning of a Margaret Atwood novel’ and accused the student union of ‘enabling misogynistic hate speech’.

Heather Bowling, a second-year linguistics student, said: ‘The society has made me feel weak and inferior to my male counterparts. I’ve had endless messages from girls who fear for their safety.’

She further accused the SU of representing the interests of men who founded the society ahead of the many thousands who had signed the petition.

Heather revealed she has spoken with women on campus who have had abortions in the past who say they now feel ‘personally victimised and threatened’ by the presence of the society.

Another student who has opted to have an abortion in the past recalled feelings of ‘guilt’ she experienced at the time which she said had been exacerbated by the things ‘people say’ about abortion.

While she acknowledged she believes in freedom of speech, she added: ‘I don’t see why men form anti-abortion groups when there are so many men’s issues they could work on.’

Amid backlash about the group’s ‘all-male’ origin, the Manchester Pro-Life Society announced on Tuesday that the committee had gained two new female members, Inge-Maria as its vice president and Lajoie as its diversity and inclusion officer.

Inge-Maria studies dental hygiene and therapy while Lajoie is studying children’s nursing.

As backlash builds against the society, a competing Instagram profile entitled ‘Stop Manchester Pro-Life’ has been established, which encourages people to organise and protest against the controversial society.

When contacted by FEMAIL, a spokesperson for the Instagram campaign said: ‘This isn’t just a women’s issue, it effects anyone that is assigned female at birth and there are plenty of male allies and people of various genders that support us.’

They added the campaign leaders ‘understand free speech’ but claimed the Pro-Life group ‘continue to post facts and statistics that simply are inaccurate with no source’.

‘We’re calling for the university to do something,’ it concluded.

In a statement to FEMAIL at the time, Manchester University’s Pro-Life society said: ‘The Pro-Life society exists to promote the wellbeing, and dignity of every human life, from conception.

‘We are a positive society, one that exists first and foremost to help and support people at all stages of life. We exist to encourage students to think critically about the way we define and value human life.’

The statement continued to argue that its membership is diverse, with women playing a ‘crucial role’ in the society’s work.

It added: ‘We do however believe that these issues are relevant and important to people of either gender, they affect everyone. The right to life is not a gender-specific issue. It is also important to point out that we are not an anti-abortion society but a pro-life society.

‘This means that while we oppose abortion, we are also concerned with other threats to life including assisted suicide, the death penalty, deaths occurring through poverty and poor living standards, structural issues in critical infrastructure such as the NHS, and climate change.’

The statement added the society will ‘promote a culture of life on campus’ through organising events and fundraising, as well as ‘campaigning for increased support for students who are pregnant or parenting from the University, Student’s Union, and the Government’.

The society also claimed its members and supporters have been subjected to ‘hate’ which it has denounced.

‘We hope that we can have reasonable and dignified conversations with everyone moving forward so we can create a better campus and society, one where everyone is valued and respected,’ it concluded.

The society did not specify who had directed ‘hate’ towards its members – however an edit to the Change.org petition stressed the purpose of the movement was ‘in no way calling for any harassment or intimidation of the members/committee of the Pro-Life society personally’.

FEMAIL has contacted the society for further comment following this week’s demonstrations.

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