(LifeSiteNews) — The University of Notre Dame has defended its appointment of a vehement abortion supporter to a prominent position despite backlash over the professor’s anti-Catholic stance on human life.
The self-proclaimed Catholic university issued a statement on Wednesday defending the elevation of Susan Ostermann – an associate professor of global affairs at Notre Dame who has described abortion bans as “violence” and “sexual abuse” – to director of the university’s Liu Institute of Asia and Asian Studies.
Ostermann is a particularly harsh critic of pro-life laws, having claimed that abortion access “prioritizes and values women’s freedom from experiencing violence, sexual abuse and trauma through forced pregnancy and childbirth.” She is thus directly opposed to the fundamental professed values of Notre Dame.
The university went so far as to declare on Wednesday in a statement to the National Catholic Register that Ostermann is “well prepared” to “create impactful research opportunities that advance our dedication to serving as the preeminent global Catholic research institution.”
Notre Dame praised the professor as a “highly regarded political scientist and legal scholar whose insightful research on regulatory compliance … demonstrates the rigorous, interdisciplinary expertise required to lead the Liu Institute.”
The university indirectly alluded to her abortion support, suggesting it did not see it as problematic: “Those who serve in leadership positions at Notre Dame do so with the clear understanding that their decision-making as leaders must be guided by and consistent with the University’s Catholic mission.” The statement added, “Notre Dame’s commitment to upholding the inherent dignity of the human person and the sanctity of life at every stage is unwavering.”
A Notre Dame spokesperson did not directly respond to criticism by Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble, a professor emeritus of history at Notre Dame and former chairman of the department, of the appointment of Ostermann. Father Miscamble ripped her appointment as a “travesty” in a First Things Wednesday publication.
“If this sad appointment is allowed to stand, the hollowness of the claim that Catholic character informs all Notre Dame’s endeavors will be painfully exposed,” wrote Father Miscamble. He highlighted some of Ostermann’s essays which give “a rather sickening sense of her views,” including “Banning abortion pill mifepristone would be a terrible policy choice and violate human rights”; “Forced pregnancy and childbirth are violence against women—and also terrible health policy;” and “Abortion, racism and guns: How white supremacy unites the right.”
In one of these articles she co-wrote for Salon, Ostermann gave one of her most shockingly anti-life statements:
“…abortion access also prioritizes and values women’s freedom from experiencing violence, sexual abuse and trauma through forced pregnancy and childbirth. When the state supports forced pregnancy and childbirth, it is complicit in this violence. When we stand by as it does so, we are complicit as well.”
Fr. Miscamble also pointed to Ostermann’s “Orwellian” claim that abortion is “consistent with integral human development that emphasizes social justice and human dignity” and to her claim that “abortion access is freedom-enhancing, in the truest sense of the word.”
He argued also that her support for abortion directly compromises her ability to properly lead Notre Dame’s Asian studies institute.
“Given the demographic issues that certain Asian countries now confront, the Liu Institute must be led by a scholar who understands well the disastrous course that has been perpetrated by organizations like the Population Council. Susan Ostermann cannot do that,” Fr. Miscamble wrote, referring to her consultant work for the Population Council.
He called upon Notre Dame’s Board of Fellows, composed of six Holy Cross priests and six laypeople, to revoke Ostermann’s appointment. The board is tasked, among other things, with ensuring “that the University maintains its essential character as a Catholic institution of higher learning,” according to the university’s website.
Fr. Miscamble believes the decision will only be reversed “if there is an outpouring of criticism of the Notre Dame administration.” He told NCR, “I think the disgraceful nature of the appointment is such that there is some possibility of that.”
Carter Snead, a professor of law and of political science at Notre Dame, finds Ostermann’s pro-abortion rhetoric to be lacking in both logic and charity.
“I don’t know Professor Ostermann and have nothing against her personally or as a colleague, but I confess to being quite shocked by the inflammatory rhetoric and uncharitable tone of her eleven op-eds… to say nothing of the tendentious and confused substance of the arguments themselves,” Snead told the Register by email.
Bill Dempsey, founding president of Sycamore Institute, told the Register that Ostermann’s appointment “ignores the primary concern, namely scandal.”
“Notre Dame would not promote a white supremacist or a Holocaust denier no matter how qualified in their fields, not because people would think the university shared their views, but because people would think the university did not regard the issues as very important. So here the signal is that the current administration, while espousing a pro-life stance, considers it of lesser importance,” Dempsey said.
He pointed to the parallels between Ostermann’s appointment and Notre Dame’s honoring of President Barack Obama in 2009 and of President Joe Biden 2016, both of whom unequivocally supported legal abortion.
While it has long been considered the pre-eminent Catholic university in the United States, Notre Dame has increasingly failed to live up to its professed identity, most famously by having given Obama an honorary award and later bestowing on Biden its prestigious Laetare Medal.
It has also hosted drag shows on campus, celebrated June as “pride month,” and promoted many other pro-LGBT initiatives.
Founded by French priest Father Edward Sorin in 1842, the university’s formal name is Notre Dame du Lac, or “Our Lady of the Lake.” In the 1970s, heterodox president Father Theodore Hesburgh made Notre Dame co-educational and helped draft the heavily criticized Land O’ Lakes statement, a document approved by presidents of various Catholic universities across the U.S. that declared independence from formal Church authority and doctrines.
