Indiana University President Pamela Whitten defended IU School of Medicine professor Dr. Caitlin Bernard Tuesday, saying while she wouldn’t impose her personal opinions on the institution, she wanted to “foster an environment of free speech” at the university and said that “it’s important to us to also recognize and defend our own.”
Her comments at the Women of IU conference elaborated on a statement to the New York Times defending Bernard, an Indianapolis OB-GYN who became the center of a national news story after she performed an abortion on a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped.
“Dr. Bernard has always demonstrated concern for the well-being of her patients and the education of her students,” she told the Times. “It’s what makes her a well-respected doctor, researcher and educator.”
Statement of support for Dr. Caitlin Bernard from President Pamela Whitten and Dean Jay Hess: “Dr. Bernard has always demonstrated concern for the well-being of her patients and the education of her students. It’s what makes her a well-respected doctor, researcher and educator.” — IU School of Medicine (@IUMedSchool) August 1, 2022
Bernard came under fire from right-wing media outlets and Indiana attorney general Todd Rokita for providing the abortion. On July 13, Rokita alleged, without evidence, that Bernard may have broken the law by not reporting the procedure. In addition to teaching and practicing medicine, Bernard publicly advocates for abortion rights.
Both Whitten and IU Health faced public criticism for remaining silent while Bernard was under attack. In a July 23 Indy Star op/ed, IU professor Jeffrey Isaac criticized the president, saying, “the failure of the university’s leaders to take a public stand is nothing less than a disgrace to academic values, civil liberty and simple human decency.”
Reactions to Whitten’s statement were largely positive online, although some at IU felt it wasn’t enough.
“A worthy statement would actually praise Dr. Bernard’s professionalism and the courage of her convictions,” Isaac wrote to WFIU News, “and also say clearly that she is being attacked and investigated for nothing more than doing her job within the bounds of the law, and that these politically motivated attacks are a threat to Dr. Bernard and her colleagues, and to both academic freedom and health professionalism at Indiana University and the IU Medical School.”
In an op/ed posted Wednesday by The Herald-Times, Graduate and Professional Student Government president Chelsea Brinda said Whitten’s statement “failed to address the vitriol and abuse that Bernard experienced at the hand of Rokita.”
President Whitten said during the conference that IU will continue to defend Bernard, and she encouraged others at IU to express their opinions.
