A conservative student group accused an Iowa State University professor this week of threatening to kick out students who disagree with her on abortion and other political issues.
According to Young America’s Foundation (YAF), Professor Chloe Clark included a “GIANT WARNING” on her English 250 class syllabus outlining “grounds for dismissal” from her classroom. These include any papers or projects that argue against killing unborn babies in abortions.
The organization said someone sent the syllabus to it anonymously, fearing retribution.
In the document, Clark claimed that the pro-life position is a topic that “takes at its base that one side doesn’t deserve the same basic human rights as you do.”
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the abortion issue. The pro-life position is that all human beings deserve basic human rights, including human beings in the womb, and the most basic of all rights is the right to life. Without it, all other rights are meaningless. Apparently, though, students could be dismissed from Clark’s classroom for arguing that point.
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The syllabus published by YAF states:
“GIANT WARNING: any instances of othering that you participate in intentionally (racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, sorophobia, transphobia, classism, mocking of mental health issues, body shaming, etc) in class are grounds for dismissal from the classroom. The same goes for any papers/projects: you cannot choose any topic that takes at its base that one side doesn’t deserve the same basic human rights as you do (ie: no arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc). I take this seriously.”
The student organization slammed the document, calling it “bigoted” and “unbecoming” of a public university professor.
“This blatant discrimination against conservative students, in particular those who are pro-life or oppose the Marxist BLM organization cannot stand at an institution of higher learning,” YAF wrote on its blog. “Warning students that any opinion the professor may disagree with could be grounds for dismissal from the classroom is a gross abuse of power.”
Pro-life students frequently are targets of discrimination. In May, a group of pro-abortion students at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio referred to a new pro-life student club as “terrorists” and began a petition to get the club kicked off campus.
Students for Life of America also has documented dozens of vandalism incidents against student pro-life clubs on campuses across the U.S. in the past eight years.
