'I Had A Target On My Back' Katie Ascough Speaks Out Following Impeachment
Katie Ascough has spoken out about being impeached from her role as President of the UCDSU. Ascough was the subject of a referendum to have her removed from office after she had abortion information removed from freshers magazine 'Winging It'.
In an interview with Colm Flynn for Catholic news network EWTN News Nightly this week, Ascough put forward her version of events telling Flynn that she felt like there was a target on her back from the start of her presidency due to her pro-life views. Ascough also talked about the abuse she had suffered during the impeachment campaign as well as her fear for free speech.
When asked about how realistic it would be that she or other people in the union would realistically be charged with an offence Ascough shirked the question, instead sticking to her view that she didn't think it was fair to put herself in that position:
I don't think it's fair to put that pressure on someone to break the law against their will, I wouldn't do that to somebody else.
Is it really fair to impeach somebody for not wanting to break the law?
I could not delegate a personal criminal conviction.
It was not a personal moral issue, it was a legal issue.
The pro-life advocate told Flynn that she felt she was a marked woman from the beginning and also opened up about abuse she had suffered as a result of her views:
I mean, it did kind of feel like some people were waiting for that from the get-go and that there was a target on my back from the beginning and no matter what I had done, or… I don’t know, it was hard to see how I could have avoided some sort of targeting.
But when this happened it did go quite far, there was some really awful stuff said online, some very violent language and even some threats of physical abuse on campus towards myself.
Ascough also talked about the support she received during the impeachment saga:
There were so many people praying for me, there were people doing novenas, there were people doing family prayer and offering up for me, having masses and everything.
The support from family and friends and the prayers are honestly the only things that could have gotten me through because there was a lot of hate and it had to be… it was so balanced out with support and I did my best to focus on the support and sometimes I wasn’t even able to read what was online because it was upsetting.
When asked what she had learned from the whole affair Ascough;
I think the main thing that I've learned from all this is that freedom of speech is so important and I really do feel like it's under attack.
I think it's so important that we are respectful of each other, give opportunity for each side to speak and that we don't belittle or attack people with different points of view.
Here is her full interview on EWTN News Nightly: