Notre Dame Educator Files Lawsuit Against Student Newspaper Over Its Depiction of Her Pro-Abortion Rights Advocacy

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A faculty member from the University of Notre Dame has initiated a defamation lawsuit against a student-run newspaper due to its portrayal of her advocacy for abortion rights. This legal action has ignited debates over freedom of the press and academic liberty at the renowned Catholic higher education institution.

The legal proceedings are taking place in Indiana, the first state to implement broad abortion limitations following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The lawsuit was filed by Tamara Kay, a global affairs and sociology professor, in May in St. Joseph County. She alleges that two articles published by The Irish Rover during the previous academic year contain inaccuracies. In an attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed, the Rover defended the truth of its reporting earlier this month, invoking a law intended to shield people from groundless lawsuits concerning public issues.

Kay, having endured harassment, threats, and property damage, is seeking unspecified punitive damages. She claims to continue suffering mental distress as a result of the two articles.

Published after two public events Kay took part in, in October 2022 and March 2023, the articles examine her pro-abortion rights remarks. The lawsuit asserts that these articles carried misleading and defamatory information, suggesting they misinterpreted a sign on her office door related to student healthcare assistance and wrongly attributed two quotes concerning academic freedom and her work at a Catholic institution.

Kay has voiced her deep distress over the issue. While she acknowledges her public writings and speeches, including social media comments, research, and opinion pieces on abortion, are subject to accurate reporting and criticism, she insists this has not been the case.

Requests for comments from the AP were not responded to by Notre Dame’s Office of Media Relations or Kay’s legal representative in the lawsuit.

In a motion filed under Indiana’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) law, the Irish Rover argued that their coverage of a Notre Dame professor’s public statements and actions on abortion fall under the public interest and free speech parameters of the law.

The motion maintained that the stories were “largely accurate” and lacked defamatory implications. It included a transcript from the March event and tweets deleted by Kay in the previous autumn, guiding Notre Dame colleagues to websites detailing abortion provider locations and how to obtain abortion pills.

W. Joseph DeReuil, the Rover’s editor-in-chief during the last academic year, justified this “targeted advocacy” by stating it was inspired by the brief initial enactment of the Indiana abortion ban. As a practicing Catholic, DeReuil believes in the Church’s stance that life starts at conception and abortion is intentional killing. While he wishes Notre Dame would adopt a stronger position in support of the Catholic perspective on these matters, he condemns harassment and threats towards abortion rights advocates, including the threats mentioned in Kay’s lawsuit.

DeReuil is hopeful that his factually accurate reporting will lead to the lawsuit’s dismissal without detracting from his final academic year.

James Bopp, Jr., the Rover’s lawyer, warned that lawsuits like this could lead to a chilling effect. If they are unsuccessful, he fears it will deter national debate, particularly on the pro-life side, as it will signal that legal repercussions await those who voice their views on the abortion issue.

Despite the Church’s firm stance on abortion, not all Catholics align with it. For instance, some might object to it based on individual conscience or social justice principles grounded in Catholic teachings, suggested Samira Mehta, a professor and expert on gender and religion at the University of Colorado.

According to Jonathan Gaston-Falk, an attorney at the Student Press Law Center, it is uncommon for faculty to sue students for libel over a contentious issue with diverging worldviews. He further explained that libel essentially involves publishing a false statement damaging to someone’s reputation with knowledge of its inaccuracy, especially if the individual is a public figure.

Indiana law stipulates that a ruling on an anti-SLAPP motion should be made within six months.

This religious coverage from Big Big News is supported through a collaboration with The Conversation US, funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for the content of this report.

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• University of Notre Dame
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• The Irish Rover
• Abortion Rights Advocacy