Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center canceled a talk by a retired doctor who advocates for a woman’s right to receive a third-trimester abortion, the conservative Texas Scorecard website reported.
Shelley Sella, whose website describes her as “the first woman to openly practice third-trimester abortion care in the U.S.,” was set to speak at the institution last Monday.
The Health Sciences Center didn’t return Inside Higher Ed’s requests for comment Thursday on who within the institution decided to nix the speech, but the Health Sciences Center sent a statement to the Scorecard saying the center “evaluated the request and determined that it is not in the best interest of the university to host this event on campus.”
Preston Parsons, president of the wider Texas Tech chapter of Turning Point USA and a Texas Tech University freshman, told Inside Higher Ed that his group, alongside “extremely pro-life” advocates in Lubbock, urged leaders of the university system—including system chancellor Brandon Creighton—to stop the speech. Before becoming chancellor in September, Creighton was a Republican state senator who successfully pushed sweeping statewide higher ed overhauls, and in 2017 he sponsored a bill “designed to prevent doctors from encouraging abortions,” according to The Texas Tribune.
Parsons said, “This wasn’t a suppression of free speech.” Texas has a near-total ban on abortion, and Lubbock, where the Health Sciences Center is headquartered, has its own restrictions.
“She would be speaking on government property, supporting an illegal activity,” Parsons said. He said Sella is welcome to speak “anywhere that isn’t a government-funded building.”
Charlie Kirk—the founder of TPUSA, a conservative, campus-focused national group—was shot to death in September at Utah Valley University. Since his death, conservatives have held him up as a hero of free speech and civil discourse. Parsons said Kirk “would have been absolutely in support of our movement here,” saying Kirk advocated in Lubbock for its local-level abortion restrictions.
But PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, denounced the cancellation. In a news release, Amy Reid, director of the organization’s Freedom to Learn program, called it “yet another example of the dangerous pattern of censorship spreading across Texas universities.”
“Universities, especially major public research institutions, must remain open to diverse and even controversial perspectives if they are to continue to be sites of open inquiry and critical thinking that serve the public good,” Reid said. “This is especially crucial when the topic relates to potentially life-saving medical care. Leaning on the excuse of Texas law to restrict the ideas Texas Tech students can access is alarming for the state of free expression and public higher education.”
