President of UCD student union impeached

The UCD students’ union president has been impeached, for the first time in the university’s history.

Katie Ascough faced impeachment over her “executive decision” to remove information on abortion from a student publication.

More than 6,000 students voted in the impeachment referendum, with 69% voting in favour of removing Ms Ascough. It was the biggest ever voter turnout in the history of UCD.

The former union president defended her position, stating that she sought legal advice over the distribution of the Winging It publication.

The student magazine contained information about pregnancy help websites; the prices of abortion in other countries; and information on abortion pills.

Final count result and campaign speeches https://t.co/DSmGo0l83J

— The College Tribune (@CollegeTribune) October 26, 2017

She said she sought to have this information removed for legal reasons: “The main reason that a group of students are calling for my impeachment is because of my decision to not break the law and illegally distribute abortion information.

“The union was producing a handbook that acted as a college guide for incoming students. I was aware that the handbook contained abortion information, but was not informed by the editors of the book that it was illegal to distribute this information.”

Ms Ascough said her decision to remove the information came on foot of legal advice: “The main legal issue with the abortion information was that it was being handed out in an unsolicited manner (that is, no one being handed the book was actively seeking out the abortion information).

“Therefore, the change made to the book was to take out the abortion information that had legal implications and replace it with the contact details for agencies where the same abortion information could be sought in a solicited, legal way.”

Ms Ascough is a pro-life advocate, but the students’ union at UCD has a mandate to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution. In a referendum at UCD last November, 64% of students voted to renew the union’s pro-choice mandate.

At this time, Ms Ascough was a leading campaigner opposing this position of renewal, instead, calling for the union to adopt a neutral position on the campaign on the Eighth Amendment: “It is no secret that I am pro-life and many students are not.

“Since the day I was elected, before I’d been put in office, some students were already calling for my impeachment. However, I did not run for election on a pro-life platform.

“I ran on a manifesto of student welfare, reducing fees, microwaves, bridging the gap between students and their union, and lots more.”

Amy Crean, campaign manager for the Yes to Impeach campaign, said: “The issue with the handbook has been quite played down. Since 1995, this legislation has been in place and students’ unions have published similar information, including UCD, and have never been held liable.”

“Our campaign was about democracy and accountability. I feel there were a lot of statements accepted by the media from her campaign but without being fact-checked,” Ms Crean said.