Student who voiced concerns about viewing D&E abortion sues college for degree sabotage

A woman who was dismissed from her physician assistant candidacy at Springfield College in Massachusetts is suing the college, alleging that the institution violated her civil rights in their decision to dismiss her from the program.

Key Takeaways:

Alina Thopurathu contends she was wrongfully dismissed from the master’s program at Springfield College because she submitted feedback objecting to having been unexpectedly required to observe an abortion procedure which “overwhelmed” her.
Her lawsuit includes claims of breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and civil rights violations based on religious beliefs.
Thopurathu is seeking $500,000 in damages.

The Details:

Alina Thopurathu, a practicing Catholic, alleges wrongful dismissal from the master’s program after she submitted feedback objecting to having been placed without prior notice into an observation for a second-trimester abortion during an OB/GYN clinical rotation in November of 2022.

Thopurathu was reportedly a “standout graduate student” and had attended the college since 2017; she received her bachelor’s degree from the school and had been named to the Dean’s List multiple times.

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According to MassLive, students in the master’s program must complete 11 clinical rotations in a hospital setting. Thopurathu was in the midst of her OB/GYN rotation at the time she was sent to observe a D&E (dilation & extraction) abortion — sometimes referred to as a dismemberment abortion, because this is how the preborn child is removed from the mother’s uterus.

“In November 2022, Ms. Thopurathu submitted feedback about her experience on a particular clinical rotation involving a sensitive medical procedure,” the lawsuit reportedly states. “Thereafter, defendants unlawfully and without cause or justification, began a campaign against Ms. Thopurathu, sabotaging her stellar academic record and ultimately culminating in her dismissal from the program.”

Following each rotation, the student is asked to give feedback, at which point Thopurathu submitted her comments under “Weaknesses,” proposing that students be asked ahead of time if they are comfortable viewing an abortion.

“I wish I was asked prior to this case if I was comfortable with seeing a D&E. I was very overwhelmed by this experience. However, I was too afraid to speak up because I didn’t want to cause a (scene). In the future, I believe students should be asked if they are comfortable seeing a D&E rather than being assigned the procedure without patient information,” she suggested.

The College Fix reported:

The supervising physician, Dr. Kristin Dardano, acknowledged her discomfort in the evaluation but still provided a positive overall assessment of the student’s performance. She received an 84.5 percent score for the rotation, the complaint states.

However, in December 2022, Thopurathu met with Springfield College President Mary-Beth Cooper to discuss her evaluation comments.

During the meeting, Thopurathu says she was pressured into signing several documents, one of which changed her rotation grade from a passing score to “incomplete,” according to the complaint.

Her complaint claims that this action was “part of an effort to achieve a predetermined result” and effectively set her up for dismissal from the program.

In addition, “On Feb. 3, 2023, the administration allegedly encouraged Thopurathu to take a leave of absence for what was perceived as anxiety. Although a leave usually lasts for one year, Thopurathu was granted one month and denied an extension,” noted MassLive.

Thopurathu later completed an extra rotation and had a 3.4 grade point average — yet faculty deemed her rotation “incomplete” because of her prior feedback and issued her a failure, despite her original 84.5% grade for the rotation.

Then, two months after she had expected to graduate, she was entirely dismissed from the physician assistant program.

Thopurathu is suing on a number of claims, including breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and civil rights violations based on religious beliefs. She is seeking $500,000 in damages.

Reality Check:

Thopurathu is not alone in her feelings after witnessing a second-trimester D&E abortion. As previously reported by Live Action News, some abortionists even have visceral reactions to observing (and later committing) D&Es:

In 1984, abortionist William Rashbaum admitted that he committed D&E abortions, but he told The New York Times that it is ”a horrible procedure.”

In 2003, Mother Jones described the reaction of Rashbaum’s own intern as he watched Rashbaum commit a D&E procedure.

“[The abortionist] intently leaned in closely and methodically pulled piece after piece of the fetuses out of the mother’s uterus, ignoring the attending staff’s whispers of horror — ‘It’s twins. It’s twins’ — to each other,” reported Mother Jones. “The intern reacted violently, running home, throwing up, and asking herself, ‘Is this right?'”

Thumbnail for 2nd Trimester Abortion | Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) | What Is Abortion?

Planned Parenthood abortionist Lisa Harris — who openly admits that she knows she is killing a human being during an abortion — once described an experience she had as she was committing a D&E while pregnant (with a child the same gestational age as her victim):

[I] was more interested than usual in seeing the fetal parts when I was done, since they would so closely resemble those of my own fetus….

I… picked up my forceps and began to remove the fetus in parts, as I always did. I felt lucky that this one was already in the breech position – it would make grasping small parts (legs and arms) a little easier.

With my first pass of the forceps, I grasped an extremity and began to pull it down. I could see a small foot hanging from the teeth of my forceps. With a quick tug, I separated the leg.

Precisely at that moment, I felt a kick – a fluttery “thump, thump” in my own uterus. It was one of the first times I felt fetal movement. There was a leg and foot in my forceps, and a “thump, thump” in my abdomen.

Instantly, tears were streaming from my eyes … Doing second trimester abortions did not get easier after my pregnancy….

And yet, Harris continued to abort children in the second trimester.

The Bottom Line:

The direct and intentional killing of a preborn child is not health care, and should not be treated as such by medical schools. No medical student or medical professional should be forced to participate in or observe any procedures to which they morally object — especially procedures that involve the intentional killing of an innocent human being.

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