Students for Life and Students for Reproductive Rights will be having a formal debate followed by a discussion on Wednesday, October 23rd. This debate will center around abortion and women’s reproductive rights.
Following the debate, a guided discussion will allow all those who come as the audience to then participate and share their own perspectives. Students for Life, headed by Lucie Holt, and Students for Reproductive Rights, headed by Liz Youngman, will bring partners to the debate in a Public-Forum style fashion.
Youngman will be supported by Jadeyn Opstad and Aidan Mcguire, while Holt will bring Calvin Fertig to support her side. The debate will run roughly an hour with the discussion unfolding after a brief break.
This event is another in the series of events hosted by BridgeUWYO following their debate last week between Gabe Saint and Artemis Langford. This event, unlike that one, will have a more formal structure and will have audience participation in the form of actual discussion rather than in the form of question submissions.
BridgeUWYO Vice President Hayden Mackenzie stated on why people ought to go, “events like this one, and like the one we did last week, are really important for showing people how they can have discussions like this and still be civil with eachother. I was a debater in high school and you have to argue both sides of all the issues. When you do something like that you really get an idea of how if you look at it the right way you can understand the other side of any argument.”
BridgeUWYO President Ven Meester agreed, “I think ultimately what’s important is people walk into a debate or a discussion like this and understand that I want them to come in thinking they’re right and leave still thinking that. We aren’t hosting these events because we want everyone to agree or even compromise, we want people to learn how to interact and have a civil dialogue with people that they don’t and probably never will agree with. The world is filled with people who have different views and the best we can hope for is that everyone can just sort of coexist and understand each other a little bit.”
The event will take place in the Union Skylight Lounge at 5pm and will run until roughly 7pm.
