Police escort again needed at Manchester University to protect pro-life speaker from screaming pro-abortion mob

A screaming pro-abortion mob forced local police to intervene at the University of Manchester to provide an escort to a pro-life speaker, who also had to take transport to a different location to her accommodation because of concerns about her safety.

For the second time this year, on the evening of 11 April police had to be called to protect pro-life students from a barrage of abuse and physical intimidation by pro-abortion student protestors at the university after Madeline Page, CEO of the Alliance of Pro-life Students (APS), delivered a talk titled “Grill the pro-lifer”.

As Page left the talk with a police escort, a large mob of students followed her down the road screaming abuse at her, forcing her to change her travel arrangements because of concerns about further escalation. Video footage shows the mob hurling abuse and attempting to intimidate the pro-life speaker; many of the protesters are fellow young women, though wearing face masks, while putting up a middle finger toward the camera.

“This was an opportunity for any student, whatever they think about abortion, to ask questions and for me to explain why I am pro-life,” says Madeline Page, who previously spoke to the Catholic Herald’s Merely Catholic podcast about what happened at Manchester at the start of March, though on that occasion it did not involve her personally, unlike this most recent fracas.

“By the time I arrived, there was already a group of protesters shouting and chanting. As soon as they saw me, I had a number of them screaming ‘f**k you’ and calling me a ‘c**t’. Police had to intervene to force the protestors to let me inside the building.”

“The actual talk was fine. Three pro-choice students attended to ask questions and were perfectly respectful.

“When we left the event, the police were really helpful but the mob still did their best to intimidate those present. I was separated from the rest of the group and swarmed by students hurling verbal abuse. The police had to form a physical barrier between the mob and me for my protection.

“I had to change my pick-up location because the police advised that the initial one was not safe and it also would not have been safe to go directly to my hotel.

“I eventually found a corner location where the police could stop the pro-abortion students getting any closer to me. They left shortly afterwards because the mob realised this was making them look really bad.”

The following evening, the CEO of APS was accosted by a pro-choice student whose face was covered with a scarf and who shouted at her outside a university building. After calming the student down, Page was able to walk away.

At the start of March, members of the student pro-life group Manchester Pro-Life Society had to face a similar ordeal on the university’s grounds and were left “terrified” as they faced a barrage of spit, verbal abuse and threats – including one young female being told she should “get raped” – from a pro-choice crowd of up to 250 people as the student group tried to hold their first meeting and pro-life talk. A heavily pregnant pro-life 22-year-old woman had to be escorted home in a police van due to concerns for her safety. She commented after: “I really thought our lives were in danger”.

“It was almost as bad as the last time protestors abused me and the pro-life society at the university,” said Inge Botha, who previously talked to the Catholic Herald about her experiences that night at the start of March. “It’s so concerning that they’ve [again] whipped themselves up into such a frenzy that they won’t even listen to what their opposition has to say. They must have so little confidence in their own arguments that they have to scream down ours”.

“The pro-choice protesters at the University of Manchester have once again disgraced themselves and their university,” says Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK. “It is astounding that the university apparently does so little in the face of the physical intimidation and vile verbal abuse that the pro-life students, and Madeline in particular, had to face.”

“This was an opportunity for them to ‘grill the pro-lifer’, to ask her difficult questions and make her justify the pro-life position on abortion. They chose to squander that opportunity and hurl abuse instead. The University of Manchester must make suitable provision to ensure that this does not happen again.”

The UK government passed the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act in 2023 to alleviate censorship on campus and restore freedom to freely express and exchange ideas in universities. It follows patterns of censorship that have emerged during the past decade and stifled free speech – and free thought – in academia across the UK, especially regarding so-called culture war issues such as abortion and gender theory.

At the same time, there are increasing concerns about the mental health of younger generations, especially females, many of whom through a combination of Internet culture, social media pressures and Covid-justified lockdowns appear to have been left emotionally reeling and morally adrift, if not unhinged given the displays of “visceral rage” – alongside a strange penchant for wearing face masks – when it comes to important ethical issues in the public sphere.

Photo: CEO of the Alliance of Pro-life Students Madeline Page speaking at another Alliance of Pro-life Students-related event. (Image courtesy Alliance of Pro-life Students.)

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