Students for Life of America, which annually publishes a pro-life grade for Christian schools around the country, recently demoted the University of Notre Dame’s “B” status to an “F” in light of the institution’s appointment of an outspoken pro-abortion professor to a prominent leadership position.
The Catholic university’s announcement in January to promote Susan Ostermann to head of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies has drawn sharp criticism from numerous bishops — including the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — as well as lay Catholics, students, alumni, and pro-life groups both on and off campus.
“Elevating an abortion radical to lead at one of the premier Catholic schools in the nation represents a failure on the part of Notre Dame’s leadership,” said SFLA President Kristan Hawkins, a Catholic, stated in a Feb. 12 press release. “With that lapse in judgement, Notre Dame’s grade on our Christian School monitoring project drops to F.”
Zeale News previously reported that SFLA issued the 2025 score card documenting where 725 Christian colleges stand, according to their own websites, on their support for abortion. A school only received an A+ if it actively promoted pro-life support and had zero positive references to abortion. Infractions that lowered a college’s score included listing Planned Parenthood facilities as a health resource, or offering information about internships with abortion providers. The more infractions a college had, the worse grade it received.
SFLA will not alter Notre Dame’s “F” grade until Osterman is fired, according to the release.
Hawkins described the appointment as “a disaster for this Catholic school,” noting that people are leaving the institution as a result.
“Students feel betrayed, and their parents will as well, as they invested in a quality, Catholic education,” she continued. The choice to put someone pro-abortion into leadership represents an absolute failure to practice with the Church preaches and to train up the next generation of Catholic leadership.”
Ostermann has repeatedly spoken out in favor of abortion, even attempting to argue that the Catholic principle of integral human development supports abortion. As Zeale News previously reported, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana — the diocese in which Notre Dame resides — said this is one of several reasons Ostermann should be disqualified from the position.
“I hope that Professor Ostermann will explicitly retract these claims, and I pray that she will have a change of mind and heart that will lead her to affirm the innate dignity of unborn babies as well as that of their mothers,” Bishop Rhoades said in a Feb. 11 statement that called on the university to resolve the situation.
Higher education institutions that receive poor grades from SFLA have a chance to improve their scores, according to the release. It noted that Villanova University, Pope Leo XIV’s alma mater, recently “went from an ‘F’ to a ‘B’ for cutting ties to the abortion industry” after SFLA’s report came out.
“For these schools, the path forward is simple: Either stop supporting abortion, abortion vendors, abortion events and advocates, or stop claiming to be Catholic,” SFLA’s release stated. “For Notre Dame itself, the first step is clear: Fire Ostermann immediately — and then do some serious evaluation of how professors are hired and promoted.”