The president of the Right to Life group at the University of Notre Dame — who was adopted from China as a child — is speaking out against the appointment of an outspoken abortion advocate.
Anna Kelley, along with eight other club board members of Notre Dame Right to Life — a group with more than 700 members — in a Feb. 3 letter called on the university to rescind the appointment of Susan Ostermann.
Ostermann, currently an associate professor of global affairs at Notre Dame, was recently named director of the Keough School of Global Affairs' Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, which funds projects for justice in Asia. She has already faced criticism for her pro-abortion writing and previously served as a consultant for the Population Council, an agency centered on contraception, abortion access, and population control.
Citing Ostermann's published writings, the Right to Life board said in its letter that the professor has advocated for anti-life causes "in an inflammatory way."
"Within the context of 11 op-ed pieces, she has referred to laws respecting the sanctity of life as based in 'white supremacy' and 'racism,'" Kelley and the other students noted in the letter.
"Notre Dame cannot claim to maintain its Catholic identity while simultaneously promoting someone whose public advocacy is in such direct contradiction to the faith," the students said.
The students also criticized her affiliation with the Population Council, a group that supports contraception, abortion, and population control.
"Her work as a member of the Population Council, an organization that collaborated with the Chinese government to promote abortion, contraception, and the enforcement of the one-child policy, violates the dignity of human life," the students continued.
Kelley was born in China when the one-child policy was in effect. From 1980 to 2015, China restricted most families from having more than one child, sometimes by means of forced abortions, sterilizations, and high fines.
"As a Catholic adoptee from China, I take personal offense at this appointment," Kelley said. "I am so blessed to have escaped the fate that Professor Ostermann's work has inflicted on so many innocent Chinese lives."
"Because I have been given the gift of life, I am choosing to speak out with my own testimony to bring attention to the real-life consequences that her ideology promotes," Kelly continued.
Alejandra Ricardo, another Right to Life board member and a senior at the university, said the board is "concerned with this appointment because Professor Ostermann has publicly rejected the vital truth that every human being possesses inherent dignity and the right to life through her works."
"In her writings, she publicly advocates for policies that contradict the magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church as well as the institutional statement of our university," Ricardo told EWTN News.
"Yet, though we signed our call to action as the executive board, our worry is grounded in our dedication to the mission of Our Lady's university," Ricardo continued. "As her students, we are committed to the pursuit of truth, and this pursuit is futile if we do not seek to promote and uphold the fundamental truth that human life is sacred at all stages, from conception to natural death."
Ostermann did not deny her abortion stance but told EWTN News that she holds "respect" for the university's mission.
"I am fully committed to maintaining an environment of academic freedom where a plurality of voices can flourish," Ostermann said in a statement shared with EWTN News. "I have long worked with scholars who hold diverse views on a multitude of issues, and I welcome the opportunity to continue doing so."
"While I hold my own convictions on complex social and legal issues, I want to be clear: My role is to support the diverse research of our scholars and students, not to advance a personal political agenda," she continued.
"This commitment to academic inquiry and mutual respect is deeply rooted in my appreciation for Notre Dame's identity as a global Catholic research university," Ostermann said. "I am inspired by the university's focus on integral human development, which calls us to promote the dignity and flourishing of every person. I respect Notre Dame's institutional position on the sanctity of life at every stage."
Father Bill Miscamble, a Holy Cross priest and Notre Dame professor emeritus of history, publicly opposed the appointment in a letter to the editor published Jan. 30 in The Observer.
In the letter, Miscamble questioned if Ostermann would be "prepared to retract her view that the pro-life movement is associated with white supremacy."
Concluding that she has not yet done so, Miscamble called her appointment "untenable."
"[T]he lack of judgment as well as the failure to uphold Notre Dame's Catholic mission demonstrated by those responsible for this disgraceful appointment must raise serious questions about their own suitability for the positions they presently occupy," Miscamble wrote.
