University Refused to Hire OBGYN Professor Because She’s Pro-Life on Abortion

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Oct 15, 2019   |   2:44PM   |   South Bend, Indiana

A new lawsuit accuses Indiana University South Bend of rejecting a teaching job applicant because of her pro-life beliefs.

The College Fix reports Cynthia Isabell filed the discrimination lawsuit after the university chose another candidate for an opening as a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics in 2017.

Because Isabell is pro-life and Assistant Dean of Nursing Teresa Dobrzykowski has close ties to the Planned Parenthood abortion chain, her lawsuit argues that the public university rejected her for the job.

Jordan Sekulow, of the American Center for Law & Justice, which represents Isabell, said the government cannot discriminate against people for expressing their views under the First Amendment.

The university, however, contends that it chose another candidate with “more relevant experience and qualifications,” according to the report. It also argues that Isabell’s discrimination claim is based on “pure speculation.”

Isabell has a doctorate in nursing and nearly 20 years of clinical teaching experience. She said the university had asked her to teach a course on an interim basis before she interviewed for the full-time position.

According to Isabell’s lawyers, she was not the only one who noticed a discriminatory tone during her interview for the position.

Assistant Dean Dobrzykowski, who conducted the interview with two other faculty members, “started off the interview by asking Cindy a question that sounded eerily similar to the topic of an internet blog article Cindy had published a few months before: ‘How a Formerly Pro-Choice Nursing Instructor Discusses Abortion with Her Students,’” according to her lawyers.

SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you like this pro-life article, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!

Isabell said Dobrzykowski “grilled” her because of her pro-life beliefs even though the position had nothing to do with abortion. According to her lawyers, another faculty member involved in the interview even asked Dobrzykowski why she was questioning Isabell about the issue.

Her lawyers continued: “One member told a friend later that day that she had never felt that her own (pro-life) position on abortion could cost her her job at IUSB until she witnessed what had happened to Cindy. Still another committee member – who happens to be pro-choice – was so outraged by the Assistant Dean’s unfair attack on Cindy that she filed a complaint about it with IUSB’s Affirmative Action Office.”

According to the lawsuit, Dobrzykowski worked with the abortion giant Planned Parenthood for almost three decades.

The university responded that Dobrzykowski is pro-life, and she only worked with Planned Parenthood facilities that did not perform abortions. Lawyers for the school also said Dobrzykowski did not make the final decision about who to hire for the position.

They recently asked a federal judge to throw out Isabell’s case, according to The Fix.

UPI reports the case is in the U.S. District Court in South Bend. It alleges that Dobrzykowsi and the university violated the First Amendment and the Indiana Conscience Statute by discriminating against Isabell because of her pro-life viewpoint.