A lawsuit alleges that a University of Louisville Medical School student was expelled just months before he was set to graduate over his vocal pro-life views.
The suit was filed by former fourth-year medical student Austin Clarke, who says he was subject to discriminatory treatment, academic punishment, derogatory comments from faculty, and even physical harassment amid a conflict that arose after he arranged an event featuring a pro-life speaker on campus.
Clarke was formally expelled in 2020 and says that the school’s treatment of him stems back to an event he organized in 2018 as part of the Medical Students for Life group which hosted a pro-life speaker who argued that life begins at conception.
Despite “objectively” passing his internal medicine course as indicated by a numerical score he received, Clarke says that the school gave him a failing grade.
The suit alleges that the Obstetrics and Gynecology instructor called the medical student “stupid” and wondered how his “brain was working.”
The instructor, Dr. Thomas Neely, also “refused to allow Clark to meet with him in his office and required him to sit in a chair in the hallway and speak through an open doorway.”
Clark was also required to sign a “professionalism contract” that he says other students were not required to sign.
The lawsuit contends: “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 husband and father of two is seeking his academic records to be restored to his previous passing grades and the degree he worked for to be awarded to him without prejudice so he can realize his longtime dream of serving as a pro-life doctor.
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