Pro-Abortion Professor Finally Caves To Pressure At Historic Catholic Institution

A University of Notre Dame professor, with a long public record of supporting abortion, has stepped down from a senior leadership role at the Catholic university following weeks of pressure from students, faculty, and Catholic leaders nationwide.

Susan Ostermann, an associate professor in Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, will no longer assume the role of director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, according to a February 26 email from Keough Dean Mary Gallagher. Ostermann had been slated to take the position on July 1.

Gallagher said Ostermann “decided not to move forward” with the appointment and thanked her for her “willingness to serve.” Ostermann will remain on the faculty in her prior role as associate professor.

The decision follows widespread backlash after Notre Dame announced Ostermann’s appointment in January. Critics pointed to her extensive public advocacy for abortion, including multiple articles in which she described restrictions on abortion as “violence” and rejected the claim that abortion ends human life.

The controversy quickly escalated beyond campus. Two faculty members resigned from their roles at the Liu Institute in protest, and students organized prayer events and demonstrations calling on the university to uphold its Catholic identity.

Notre Dame describes itself as an institution where “Catholic character” informs all it does, a claim critics said was incompatible with elevating an outspoken abortion advocate to a leadership role.

The news of Ostermann’s withdrawal from the leadership role was met with positive reactions from pro-life advocates, though some said it did not go far enough. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, called the move “a good start,” but argued that Ostermann’s continued presence on the faculty remains incompatible with Notre Dame’s Catholic mission.

“It’s clear from her aggressively pro-abortion body of work, including her association with the Population Council, that she needs to be terminated,” Hawkins said in a statement obtained by The Daily Wire. “The premier Catholic school in America should not allow professors to blatantly oppose central teachings on the value of all human life, including babies in the womb. Her elevation was extremely troubling, but stepping down is not enough. She needs to go.”

Pressure intensified earlier this month when Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, whose diocese includes Notre Dame, issued a public statement condemning the appointment. Rhoades said he had “strong opposition” to the decision and warned it was “causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond.”

Ostermann’s “extensive public advocacy of abortion” and her “disparaging and inflammatory remarks about those who uphold the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death,” Rhoades said, directly conflicted with a core principle of Notre Dame’s mission.

Catholic lay-leaders framed Ostermann’s withdrawal as a necessary step to preserve the university’s identity and credibility. Mary FioRito, a senior fellow at The Catholic Association, said the decision was a “win for consistency, clarity, and common sense” at the University of Notre Dame.

“As an explicitly Catholic university, Notre Dame owes its students and faculty truth in advertising,” FioRito said in a statement obtained by The Daily Wire, arguing that “Ostermann’s public advocacy of legal abortion would have overshadowed the good work of the Liu Center and significantly hampered its ability to form students.” FioRito also credited alumni, students, faculty, and staff who raised concerns through prayer and public advocacy, as well as Bishop Rhoades and other bishops who issued statements opposing the appointment.

I want to express my strong support for the statement that Bishop Kevin Rhoades made this morning concerning a controversial appointment at the University of Notre Dame. Please read his communication in full, for he makes the case more completely and eloquently than I could.…

— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) February 11, 2026

On Tuesday, Rhoades joined students, faculty, and staff at the university’s Marian grotto for a public rosary “for the cause of life.”

In a statement included with Gallagher’s email, Ostermann said her acceptance of the directorship was motivated solely by a desire to serve the institute’s faculty and students. She added that the ongoing controversy risked overshadowing the institute’s work and said there was “work to do at Notre Dame to build a community where a variety of voices can flourish.”

The Catholic Church teaches that human life is sacred from conception to natural death and that direct abortion is a grave moral evil. In recent remarks honoring Mother Teresa, Pope Leo XIV described abortion as “the greatest destroyer of peace.”

Church teaching on Catholic higher education is laid out in St. John Paul II’s apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, which calls on Catholic universities to safeguard their identity while exercising academic freedom within the bounds of faith and reason.

Student organizers say demonstrations and prayer events will continue, framing Ostermann’s withdrawal not as an endpoint, but as evidence that sustained, faithful pressure can produce results.