Students filled the John A. Russell Building atrium at the U of M on Oct. 15 for Pro-Choice and Protesting 101, an event designed by UMSU’s Women’s Centre to educate students and community members about reproductive rights, protest safety and community advocacy.

Leata Goulet, the event’s initiator and UMSU women’s representative, said the idea came from witnessing anti-abortion demonstrations on campus.

“For a long time now, the anti-choice group has always made their way onto our campus, pushing their so-called ‘pro-life’ agenda with extremely triggering and false images,” said Goulet. “Last year, I was a part of the Women’s Centre team and [helped plan] the counter-protests, especially in March where they were here for four days in a row.”

Goulet stated that those experiences inspired her to take an active leadership role. “After that week, and after I knew that I was going to be the next [UMSU women’s representative] I knew that this [was] something I had to take a role on.”

Goulet outlined that the university’s neutral stance on this topic has made it challenging to restrict anti-abortion protests on campus.

“They are legally allowed to be here, so it is quite difficult, especially since the university is neutral on this stance.”

The idea for pro-choice education came in June, after Goulet joined a virtual meeting with student leaders across Canada who have faced similar issues.

“They really recommended putting together an educational event,” said Goulet. “To not only show support to our community through counter-protesting, but [show] support through actually trying to reach out and educate people about the importance of these [reproductive health] services.”

The evening brought together both campus and community organizations, including the Women’s Health Clinic, the Centre for Human Rights Research, the Social Justice Hub, UMSU and the Sexuality Education Resource Centre.

Beyond advocacy, the event also emphasized calm and respectful dialogue.

“One of my goals for counter-protesting [this year] is to have more calm conversations with these people,” said Goulet. “[That’s] why I brought in the Social Justice Hub […] to talk about the importance of trying to use your words properly in a conversation and to not always be so defensive.”

For Goulet, being pro-choice is ultimately about showing respect to others.

“There is no harm in being pro-choice,” said Goulet. “Every human should be able to make decisions about their own body and about what they want their future to look like.”

“When abortion is accessible, it happens less often and women don’t die as much or get injured as much,” said Goulet. Her message to students is simple — education and empathy go hand in hand.

“We’re seeing people’s human rights being taken away across the world right now, not only just about abortions, but in many different ways, and this is a very basic right that people should be able to have,” said Goulet.

“If you want to support women, you should support their right to make their own choices about their bodies and what they want to do with their own lives.”