Pro-abortion professor withdraws from University of Notre Dame institute appointment

A pro-abortion University of Notre Dame professor has declined a research appointment at the school, following weeks of outcry from students, staff and several U.S. Catholic bishops.

Susan Ostermann, associate professor in the Keough School of Global Affairs, has “decided not to move forward” as director of that school’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, said Keough dean Mary Gallagher in a Feb. 26 email.

Ostermann — who specializes in the study of regulatory compliance, comparative politics and environmental regulation, with a focus on South Asia — will remain a member of the school’s faculty.

The development was announced Feb. 26 by The Observer, the independent student newspaper of Notre Dame, St. Mary’s College and Holy Cross College.

Gallagher said she was “grateful” for Ostermann’s “willingness to serve and for the thoughtfulness with which she approached this decision.”

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, had issued a statement Feb. 11 expressing “dismay” and “strong opposition” to the university’s decision, which he said was “causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond.”

Ostermann’s “extensive public advocacy of abortion rights and her disparaging and inflammatory remarks about those who uphold the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death go against a core principle of justice that is central to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mission,” said Bishop Rhoades, noting he had read many of the opinion pieces in which Ostermann had articulated her defense of abortion.

On Feb. 24, Bishop Rhoades joined some 50 students, faculty and staff gathered at the university’s Marian grotto to “pray together for the cause of life and respect for all human life.

He said, “We pray for the University of Notre Dame, and we ask for the powerful intercession of our Blessed Mother as she looks over this campus.”

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