Brett Barbin, the University of Chicago student who introduced student government legislation to ban the use of student fees from going toward abortions, spoke out on his bill on Fox & Friends Thursday, and the backlash that ensued.

As Campus Reform previously reported, Barbin was the sole student government member to vote in favor of his bill, which would have ensured that no student who is personally or religiously opposed to abortion is forced to pay for the procedure through mandatory student life fees.

"Online I received death threats. People were calling for people to track me down and beat me up."

Barbin told Fox & Friends that prior to him introducing the bill, "several concerned students reached out to me" about their student fees funding abortions. He said those students told him "that would be a violation of their conscience" and that they asked him to draft the legislation, which he did and later introduced to the rest of the student government.

[RELATED: Student proposes not funding abortions with student fees...and faces brutal backlash]

No student fees have yet gone to fund abortions but student government leaders have recently advertised abortions funded by student fees.

"They take both student life fees from our student government, these are financially coerced from students, but also they take private donations and so the question is really, why are they continuing to use our student life fees, which only make up about ten percent of their student funding in order to fund abortions when they have the rest of the 90 percent to use," Barbin said.

As for the backlash to his bill, Barbin said that within the room where student government voted, there was a "civil discussion."

Outside the room, however, things were not so pleasant, according to Barbin.

"Online I received death threats. People were calling for people to track me down and beat me up. There was a student who was egged outside of the room," Barbin said.

"It was really unfortunate to see on a campus like the University of Chicago where we have such strong free speech and free expression principles," Barbin added, referring to the Chicago Statement, which is often referred to as the gold standard of free speech on college campuses.

[RELATED: UC backs up ‘Chicago Statement’ with action]





















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