Penn, Harvard, Catholic-in-name-only colleges—take notes!
The Catholic University of America swiftly terminated its contract with psychology professor Melissa Goldberg after she subjected students to a guest lecture from “abortion doula” Rachel Carbonneau.
Goldberg taught a course titled, “Lifespan Development,” where topics focused, ironically enough, on the fundamental phases of human life.
In a recording of the fateful lecture obtained by the Daily Signal, Carbonneau boasted of the “honor and the privilege” of working with families who chose to undergo elective abortion.
“Here’s the thing they don’t really tell you all the time,” she began.
“The goal for a lot of providers is to try and perform the abortion before the baby’s nerve endings are formed…at a time when the baby is not going to feel any pain.”
Throughout the 10-minute recording, Goldberg does not interrupt and remind Carbonneau of CUA’s commitment to doctrine or nudge her away from recounting horror stories to the class.
Carbonneau worked for the Department of Homeland Security before leaving to pursue her passion—that is, full-time “doula.”
For those unfamiliar with New Age terminology, a “doula” is defined as someone who provides support to women during their pregnancies, not necessarily including the wet work provided by a midwife.
Carbonneau is one on the team of 11 at Family Ways, a doula-matching service site that lately features a prominent display of the Pride flag.
When asked about inclusive language, Carbonneau detailed her experience as a doula for “men who have given birth” (also known as women). The Left, as well as many in the middle are all-in on calling these miracles “seahorse births.”
Within a week of Goldberg’s rogue speaker choice and days after a recording of the lecture went viral, university president Peter Kilpatrick announced the school would be parting ways with the Psychology PhD.
“We did determine that the speaker’s views on life issues and on the anthropology of the human person were not consistent with our mission and identity as a faithful Catholic university,” Kilpatrick’s statement read. “She should not be allowed to address the class again.”
What a breath of fresh air!
Between failures to appropriately address calls for genocide at Ivy League schools to all-girls Catholic institutions opening the door to biological men, the reputation of college presidents has totally cratered.
Kilpatrick’s quick and appropriate termination of Goldberg from the college payroll was a cortisone shot to higher education’s collective spinal atrophy.
Becoming an “abortion doula” as one’s career or side hustle has gained popularity as abortion has become socially acceptable and, in places like Massachusetts, promoted.
Historically, a doula would have been a midwife or wet nurse. Nowadays, as noted above, a doula means someone with little to no medical experience who assists a pregnant woman during and after birth, either physically or mentally. While the term’s usage now is often symbolic, the goal of a doula, until very recently, remained the same: helping a woman grow and give birth to a healthy child.
“Abortion doula” would have been a perverse oxymoron. Actually it still is.
Predictably, Planned Parenthood includes elective pregnancy termination in modernity’s vast umbrella of doula-ness. A “full spectrum doula,” as they call it, might support trans men (women) or nonbinary pregnant people (women) through abortion. They bring a thorough understanding of the impacts of “systemic racism” to provide people (women) with the support they need.
Since the idea to bring an abortion doula to a Roman Catholic campus is not new, ex-professor Goldberg likely thought she had the greenlight on the guest lecturer.
Last spring, Notre Dame University’s Gender Studies department hosted “trans abortion doula” and “public intellectual” Ash Williams as part of their Reproductive Justice event series.
While the event earned the college harsh criticism from a local bishop, who correctly called the endeavor “intellectually unserious,” Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins refrained from commenting.
Usually, the statements made by a university president—or, often, by some sort of surrogate Deputy Vice Provost of Inclusion—are watery and vague. They are ridden with word-salad verbiage to pacify students infatuated with Marxism and all its pernicious baggage, without overtly deviating from a mission statement or official platform.
Not Kilpatrick’s. He spoke clearly, without obfuscation.
“As a Catholic institution, we are committed to promoting the full truth of the human person and to protecting human life from conception to natural death. In our rigorous pursuit of truth and justice, we engage at times with arguments or ideologies contrary to reason or to the Gospel.”
He continued, “But we do so fully confident in the clarity given by the combined lights of reason and faith…[never] to give moral equivalence to error.”
Maybe Kilpatrick would be willing to share his notes with the Ivy League’s crème de la crème or those at the nation’s “number-one” Catholic college.
Bravo, CUA!