UCDSU President Katie Ascough has been under fire since the removal of abortion information from a university magazine distributed to new students.
A group of students from University College Dublin (UCD) have launched a petition calling for the impeachment of Student Union President Katie Ascough.
A petition to demand the removal of the UCDSU President through an Impeachment Referendum is currently available online, having been posted on the Impeach UCDSU President Facebook page that was set up earlier this week. Printed versions of the petition will be circulated on the UCD campus in the coming days.
Amy Crean, one of the students involved in the group behind the petition, told the University Observer that the group were “concerned with Katie Ascough’s actions as a president”.
Ascough came under fire earlier this month due to her decision to remove information on abortion from the Winging It magazine, which is distributed to new students in UCD.
The information removed from the magazine included details on obtaining information safely, how to purchase abortion pills online and price lists for abortion clinics outside of Ireland.
Ascough told The University Observer that the decision to remove the abortion information was taken after consultation with the students’ union lawyers as it was in breach of the Abortion Information Act of 1995.
Ascough, who is pro-life, was the only member of the UCD sabbatical officers to deal with lawyers on the matter; the other four students’ union sabbatical officers objected to the removal of the details, which also appeared, in an almost identical format, in the 2016 edition of the magazine.
To call for an impeachment of a President, in line with section 6.3 of the UCDSU constitution, a petition has to be signed by 3.5% of the union membership; the group behind the petition, according to Amy Crean, are “looking for just over a thousand signatures to support the petition”.
You can read the full story on the University Observer here.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
