By Dave Andrusko
Our friends at Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL), National Right to Life’s state affiliate, dropped me a line today to clarify a story we reposted yesterday from Campus Reform.
The gist of the story, written by Toni Airaksinen, was straightforward. “The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has scrapped its plans to hire a ‘trainer in training’ for future abortionists after sparking widespread student condemnation.”
In fact, the situation is far more fluid. The Dean of the Medical School, Dr. Jacob Tolar, sent a letter to state Senator Michelle Fischbach, president of the Senate, responding to a request for what Dr. Tolar described as “clarity as to our plans to fill the position involving family planning that was pulled last Friday.”
What he wrote back was that he did not intend to fill this position “for at least a year.” He concluded, “In the future, we will have a more robust and comprehensive review process for positions and training programs to ensure proper due diligence and proper notification to stakeholders.”
The good news is that the “Reproductive Rights Advocacy Fellowship” is on hold for at least a year. Better news would be that Dr. Tolar’s comment that “we will examine the value of this training in the context of our mission along with the values of the community” means he will eventually understand that this has no place at the University of Minnesota.