Historically Catholic university appoints professor who calls abortion bans ‘sexual violence’

The University of Notre Dame, a historically Catholic institution, has promoted a professor the school previously criticized for saying state abortion bans are “sexual violence.”

Notre Dame has named associate professor Susan Ostermann as the university’s new director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. Ostermann in 2022, while already employed at the university, co-authored an op-ed bashing state abortion bans and denying that babies in the womb are living beings.

“Criminalizing abortion results in irreparable harm,” the op-ed reads. The authors go on to deny that “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 states in the article that forcing women to view an ultrasound before killing their babies via abortion is “sexual violence” and denies any negative effects from abortion, saying that women do not regret the action. The op-ed also echoes the oft-quoted lie that abortion pills “are safer than taking Tylenol.”

Notre Dame’s president at the time wrote a public response to the article, stating that although the two authors were “free to express their opinions on our campus or in any public forum,” the article “does not reflect the views and values of the University of Notre Dame in its tone, arguments or assertions.”

Many criticisms arose at the time, not only of the op-ed itself, but of the university’s response.

“[T]he response feels somewhat minimal,” Jonathan Liedl, senior editor for the National Catholic Register and Notre Dame alumnus, said in a 2022 analysis. “Even though professors can’t be removed from their posts due to the university’s academic freedom policies (which are themselves dubious according to actual Catholic teaching on academic freedom and the pursuit of truth), one might think Father Jenkins could use the opening created by Kay and Ostermann’s scandal to provide a more robust articulation of Notre Dame’s commitment to defending the sanctity of life by promoting prenatal justice in the pages of the Tribune.”

Notre Dame’s Catholic faith has come into question recently after it attempted to change its staff values to exclude a requirement for employees to understand and accept “the Catholic mission of the university,” replacing the mention with more generic terms. The university backtracked after it was accused by many of watering down its Catholic historic mission.

Prior to that, a top academic officer at Notre Dame said that hiring women and minorities is “equally important” to the school’s mission as hiring Catholics.

The university did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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