Notre Dame Faces Backlash Over Abortion Advocate Hire

Clear Facts

• Two professors resigned from the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies at the University of Notre Dame after a pro-abortion professor was appointed director.
• The appointee, Susan Ostermann, has publicly advocated for abortion access and criticized anti-abortion positions.
• The resigning professors cited Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and the new director’s views as reasons for their departures.

Two professors at the University of Notre Dame have ended their affiliations with the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.

Their protest follows the appointment of Susan Ostermann, a global affairs professor known for her public support of abortion rights, as the next director of the center.

One resigning professor, Diane A. Desierto, confirmed, “I submitted my resignation to the University President, Provost, Keough School Dean, and the current Liu Institute Director, giving up my appointments as a Faculty Fellow and member of the Faculty Executive Committee of the Liu Institute yesterday.”

Research professor emeritus Robert M. Gimello also left the institute, requesting to be removed from the roster in a letter sent to the Liu Institute’s director.

Gimello stated, “The recently announced appointment of your successor as Director of the Liu Center compels my resignation from my position as Emeritus Fellow of the Center.”

He added, “I can only hope —and I will pray — for a future in which the Institute fulfills its proper role as a faithful instrument of our University’s Catholic mission.”

Ostermann, slated to start as director in July, co-authored articles asserting abortion is safe and does not harm physical or mental health, and advocated broader access.

Her published views also claim abortion “doesn’t cause cancer, it doesn’t affect future fertility, and most people feel relief after an abortion and do not regret their decision.”

In other writings, Ostermann has argued that criminalizing abortion causes harm, asserting it can raise abortion rates, unintended pregnancies, and infant mortality.

The departing professors specifically cited conflicts with Notre Dame’s Catholic values as their primary reason for resigning.

Gimello stated, “The principal reason for my resignation is the sad fact that administrators of the world’s preeminent Catholic university have chosen to appoint, as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, a scholar who has repeatedly, publicly, and adamantly proclaimed her opposition to…the Catholic Church’s firm teaching that protection and nourishment of human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is a sacred duty incumbent upon the whole human community.”

He also noted, “Continued formal association with a unit of the University led by such a person is, for me, simply unconscionable.”

Gimello expressed further concern that the decision may send unclear signals about the university’s commitment to its Catholic identity.

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