The University of Iowa is the subject of criticism from pro-life groups after the Associated Press obtained a copy of an agreement the college made with an abortion practitioner at Planned Parenthood.
According to the document, the University of Iowa allowed staffer Jill Meadows to violate the school’s non-compete agreement so she could do abortions at a Planned Parenthood center as long as she continued to train medical students, including in how to do abortions.
Typically, doctors who teach at the university are prohibited from working within a 50-mile radius of Iowa City, Iowa, the eastern city where the main University of Iowa campus is located. That prohibition under the non-compete agreement normally extends to two years following the termination of employment with the university, and it is a fairly common practice in the field.
AP indicates Meadows signed the agreement when she went to work for the University of Iowa in 1999, but she told UI officials last year she was resigning on June 30 to become the medical director for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the abortion business that covers Iowa and Nebraska. The news agency obtained a June 22 legal settlement in which UI officials said they believed her plans to work for the abortion business would violate the non-compete agreement. However, they said they would not take action on that point as long as Meadows agreed to serve as an unpaid University of Iowa instructor and provide training in abortions to medical students at the Planned Parenthood facility in town.
The arrangement, the training and the fact that the University of Iowa would have an abortion practitioner on staff upsets pro-life advocates.
“What that does is it puts the University of Iowa directly into the abortion business. Why else would students be going to the Planned Parenthood in Iowa City to get training from an abortionist who has defended late-term abortions in court?” Cheryl Sullenger, senior policy adviser for the pro-life group Operation Rescue, told AP. “And is this just something they would do for anybody or just for abortionists? Is she getting special treatment because she can provide this training?”
UI spokesman Tom Moore told the news outlet on Monday that the training is voluntary for students and he released documents showing similar arrangements with other former UI teaching doctors who offered training as an unpaid staffer after leaving the college.
“The university felt that it was more beneficial to provide clinical educational opportunities for residents than to enforce the non-compete agreement,” he said.
ACTION: Send your complaints to University of Iowa by going to https://www.uiowa.edu/homepage/contact/index.html
