Catholics Blast Notre Dame’s Promotion of Abortion Activist
One of the nation’s premier Catholic universities has disgraced its legacy and heritage by appointing a controversial pro-abortion professor to a prestigious role. Now, Catholic students are speaking out.
As our own Ellie Gardey Holmes reported, the University of Notre Dame appointed abortion activist Susan Ostermann as the head of the school’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. Ostermann has a lengthy history of promoting abortion, comparing “unwanted” pregnancies to sexual assault and writing in a Los Angeles Times op-ed, “Abortion saves women’s lives.” (One of Ostermann’s pro-abortion co-authors, Notre Dame professor Tamara Kay, later sued students for reporting on her abortion activism, which included helping students arrange or procure abortions.)
In an article for the Chicago Tribune, Ostermann wrote of “Lies about abortion.” She listed as lie number 2: “Abortions kill babies. Almost 90% of abortions occur during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy when there are no babies or fetuses. There are only blastocysts or embryos so tiny they are too small to be seen on an abdominal ultrasound.” Ostermann also argued against pro-life laws regulating the abortion drug mifepristone, which she classified as “lifesaving.” Increased regulation of mifepristone “would be a terrible policy choice and violate human rights,” the self-described Catholic argued.
The demented arguments presented by Ostermann over the years directly and blatantly contradict the clear, perennial moral teachings of the Catholic Church, begging the question: “Why on earth did one of the nation’s best-known Catholic schools appoint this pro-baby-slaughter harpy to head a high-profile institution?”
Catholic institutions are no doubt targets of spiritual attack, that is to be expected. But they ought not to become weapons of spiritual attack.
That’s exactly what Lucy Spence, editor-in-chief of The Irish Rover, Notre Dame’s Catholic student newspaper, asked in a letter to the editor published in The Observer. “The recent appointment of abortion advocate Susan Ostermann to director of the Liu Institute is astonishing coming from a university dedicated to the mother of an unplanned pregnancy,” Spence wrote, referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary. “And the decision should be viewed as none other than a slap in the face to every woman here.”
“Our provost, John McGreevy, announced last year that the hiring of women and minorities would become a priority equal to that of hiring Catholics,” Spence shockingly shared. “Ostermann’s appointment, presumably an implementation of McGreevy’s plan, is doing nothing to aid women at Notre Dame. It is doing the opposite, promoting the saddest lie ever told to them: that their children are disposable,” she continued. “Women are tired of being told that their strength lies in the rejection of love.”
“No, unplanned pregnancies do not ‘destroy lives,’” Spence wrote, refuting Ostermann’s arguments.
No, a child born of rape is not a “form of violence.” In its appointment and promotion of Ostermann, Notre Dame has become complicit in feeding that great lie to its female students. Until it begins to defend the sanctity of all life — mother and baby alike — in all of its actions, Notre Dame can never hope to fulfill the singular duty it bears to its female students as Our Lady’s University.
God bless Miss Spence. The Sycamore Trust, a coalition of Notre Dame alumni dedicated to preserving the university’s Catholic identity, also lambasted the appointment of Ostermann. “Notre Dame’s claim to be a Catholic university is tested not only by what it teaches but also by whom it entrusts with authority. Leadership appointments signal institutional priorities, especially when they touch matters at the heart of Catholic moral teaching,” the group said in a statement shared with The American Spectator. “A recent decision by the University raises serious questions about whether fidelity to the sanctity of human life remains among those priorities — at a time when abortion and population-control policies have wrought profound moral and human consequences across much of the world.”
What, indeed, would Notre Dame — “Our Lady” — say in response to Ostermann? Our Lady instructed us, the followers of her Son, to “do whatever he tells you to” (John 2:5). Surely, Christ would not ask the leadership at the University of Notre Dame to advance pro-abortion insanity. Why does a school named after and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the living exemplar of purity and the paragon of virtue and devotion to God, employ rabid abortion activists? It’s shocking enough that Ostermann is a professor at the university, but she is joined by fellow pro-abortion propagandists Tamara Kay and Tricia Bruce.
Catholic institutions are no doubt targets of spiritual attack, that is to be expected. But they ought not to become weapons of spiritual attack, condoning, shielding, and even advancing arguments and activism in favor of the slaughter of unborn innocents. The “Catholic” leaders at Notre Dame could satisfy a deep hunger and amass a veritable army of faithful, loving students and alumni if they would just defend the principles of the Catholic Faith. Instead, they bow to the whims of the age, turning their backs on Our Lady and her Son.
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