Catholic Student Sues School Alleging She Was Ousted From Grad Program for Refusing to Witness Abortion
“She claims she was dismissed after refusing to observe a second-trimester abortion during a clinical rotation.”
What happened to the left’s respect for the idea of being a conscientious objector?
Campus Reform reports:
Catholic student ousted from grad program after refusing to observe abortion, lawsuit claims
A former student at Springfield College in Massachusetts has filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful dismissal from a graduate program due to her religious objections to abortion.
Alina Thopurathu, a Catholic and physician’s assistant candidate, claims she was dismissed after refusing to observe a second-trimester abortion during a clinical rotation, according to MassLive.
Thopurathu is seeking $500,000 in damages through her lawsuit, which lists Springfield College President Mary-Beth Cooper and three officials with the physician’s assistant program as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges that, after Thopurathu objected to seeing an abortion and submitted feedback, the defendants launched a campaign against her.
“In November 2022, Ms. Thopurathu submitted feedback about her experience on a particular clinical rotation involving a sensitive medical procedure,” the lawsuit reportedly states.
“Thereafter,” it continues, “defendants unlawfully and without cause or justification, began a campaign against Ms. Thopurathu, sabotaging her stellar academic record and ultimately culminating in her dismissal from the program.”
According to its website, Springfield College officially “does not discriminate” against students who have had abortions.
In 2022, The Springfield Student, the college’s student newspaper, published an article describing how abortion pills were not available on campus and directed students seeking abortions to travel about 5.6 miles to the nearest Planned Parenthood.
“The closest Planned Parenthood is 5.6 miles away and is about a 14-minute drive,” the article stated. “Planned Parenthood works with each individual and accommodates the cost of their care to direct income.”
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Comments
It seems schools never learn about the primacy of the 1st Amendment.
Hey.
“Observing” an abortion, as opposed to participating in one, violates her religious practice rights?
Get out of here!
If she’d had to participate, she would be right to object and have her objection respected.
Merely observing isn’t protected. And it’s not worthy of respect.
She’s never heard about looking away? Really?
Would someone with a religious belief in antinatalism be able to pass on observing a delivery?
In your view, would the university be able to require a student to watch as a physician administers a lethal injection, despite the student’s moral objection?
Would your answer change depending on whether the injection was assisted suicide as opposed to criminal punishment?
And yet, universities regularly issue “trigger warnings” so students can elect to not be exposed to “controversial” topics. I suspect this qualifies.
If she can provide evidence to prove her case it should be an easy win!
I don’t know what a physicians assistant’s certification allows them to do. I know it’s more than a nurse and less than a doctor.
I do know she can’t be forced to perform an abortion against her will (another reason abortion isn’t a personal right—somebody else has to exercise it).
If she never intends to perform one, she doesn’t need to learn how to do one.
I am not the least bit squeamish (except when I see eyes being cut into). I don’t think I could handle witnessing a second trimester abortion.
“According to its website, Springfield College officially “does not discriminate” against students who have had abortions.
“In 2022, The Springfield Student, the college’s student newspaper, published an article describing how abortion pills were not available on campus and directed students seeking abortions to travel about 5.6 miles to the nearest Planned Parenthood.“
So what? None of that is any more relevant than an L. L. Bean catalogue or a VW repair manual would be to justify blackballing her.
When I was teaching in clinical medicine, we routinely had medical students who asked to be excused from lectures and *clinical* practice labs for any number of reasons that were deemed acceptable (e.g. moral, religious, personal, e.g. somebody’s grandma passed away from something…). Medical licensure exams are quite different from Physician’s Assistant’s—MDs take the USMLE series steps 1, 2, 3 at different phases of their medical education and post-grad, and students are responsible for ALL material, including that which they skipped from lecture/lab. During residency/fellowship, there is no valid excuse for getting out of anything—you’re there and you do it. PA’s take a single exam and re-test every ten years to maintain their certification. Physicians also have their specialty/sub-specialty boards to maintain, which are an entirely different matter. Why this college decided to boot the student out of the program? I have no idea. Sounds waaay too political and underhanded.