A lawsuit reportedly claims that a medical student from Kentucky was harassed by professors and expelled by his university over his pro-life views.
The Christian Post said that Austin Clark filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky for being expelled in July 2020 by the University of Louisville School of Medicine on account of discrimination of his pro-life views.
The lawsuit, filed July 23, was made against University of Louisville School of Medicine President Neeli Bendapudi and 13 people from the school. Clark pointed out that his involvement in the University's Medical Students for Life leadership board has something to do with his expulsion.
Clark claims that the school retaliated against him, which he said was due to a 2018 hosting of a "pro-life speaking event." Accordingly, the school tried to prevent the said pro-life speaking event but didn't succeed due to the legal intervention of Alliance Defending Freedom.
Students For Life said the University of Louisville School of Medicine is renowned to be "notoriously pro-abortion" and that Clark's case isn't the first controversy on it. Allegedly, the school has "official connections" to the EMW Women's Surgical Center, which is an abortion facility.
Students for Life highlighted that Clark's lawsuit cited his experiences from the school that "range from academic punishment to verbal and even physical harassment from the time of a 2018 pro-life speaking event."
"The lawsuit reports that in early November 2018, Clark, as president of the student organizations, Medical Students For Life and the Christian Medical and Dental Association...invited a Christian speaker, Alex McFarland, to make an academic presentation as to when life actually began. This generated substantial opposition from many faculty and students'," Student For Life said referring to the lawsuit.
According to Clark, professors retaliated against him after the said event using derogatory comments such as "stupid" and asking him if "his brain was working." He said he was the only one forced to sign a "professionalism contract," was subject to abuse, and "was physically harassed and bullied."
"They are saying I was being unprofessional, but all I've done is to be a vocal pro-life student, standing up to bullies," Clark disclosed to Students For Life.
Clark, who is married and has two children, noted in his lawsuit that he suffered "heightened scrutiny" under standards of "professionalism" while "arbitrarily and capriciously" awarded "failing grades." He highlighted that the school "violated his First Amendment rights" for punishing him when he expressed his pro-life views being a Christian.
"Defendants punish Clark for expressing his views regarding the proper treatment of medical students, abortion and the sanctity of life, and the application of Christianity and his personal philosophy and beliefs to the practice of medicine, when there are students who, when expressing contrary views or faiths (or lack thereof), via Student Organizations and other means, or otherwise engaging in similar or more severe 'unprofessional behavior,' while both on and off the clerkship services, are not subject to the same or similar restrictions or such severe level of academic discipline as applied to Clark," the lawsuit stressed.
In addition, Clark asked the school through the lawsuit to restore his medical grades as he had good ones before the incident. He also asked the school to award him his degree so he can continue with his pursuit to become a "pro-life doctor."
