On the first of the month, the nation’s only Catholic Spiritan university honored NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor with the school’s inaugural “Duquesne University Award for Ethics and Integrity in Journalism.” Duquesne President Ken Gormley presented Alcindor with the honor at the National Press Club in D.C.
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette prior to the event, Gormley stated that Alcindor was selected because her journalistic approach aligned with the Congregation of the Holy Spirit’s mission to ensure that “all voices are heard.” He neglected to mention that the honoree, a self-described Catholic, has repeatedly ignored voices supporting the unborn.
During the award ceremony, Alcindor claimed that “every” woman she spoke with on the ground in the 10 to 15 states she visited leading up to this year’s midterm election, including those identifying as conservative, was “uncomfortable” with the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Alcindor’s recollection is highly unlikely, according to her own broadcast network. NBC News exit polls conducted on Election Day found that 87 percent of Republican women were enthusiastic or satisfied with the overturning of Roe.
The polling data also defied Alcindor’s assertion made during an episode of “The ReidOut” in September that Republican women were “extremely upset” about the reversal of Roe. Earlier in the month, she had also suggested that potential female voters in the battleground states of Florida, Michigan, and Ohio were enthusiastic about the “human right” of abortion.
Alcindor didn’t shy away from fearmongering leading up to the Supreme Court decision. While discussing the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade during an MSNBC appearance in May, she shared her concern that the downfall of Roe would result in women being forced to carry pregnancies that they “cannot afford to terminate” and “will then turn into children.”
Despite openly sharing her personal bias on cable news, Alcindor insisted during the award ceremony that her career beginnings in local journalism taught her she cannot “just go on TV and say whatever I want” because she doesn’t want to be the type of person who “tells you what I think.” Gormley praised the journalist for her commitment to “balanced, ethical reporting.”
While accepting her award, Alcindor brought up the importance of advocacy for “vulnerable populations” based on her belief that all people are “created equally.” She steered clear of revealing whether she thought babies in the womb were deserving of any form of legal protection at all.
Honoring Alcindor wasn’t the first questionable decision by Duquesne related to abortion this year. In April, Gormley signed a letter in support of the University of Pittsburgh’s annual state funding after lawmakers considered providing money directly to students because of Pitt’s horrific fetal tissue experiments that have relied on babies from elective abortions.
Gormley, who was once nominated by pro-abortion Gov. Tom Wolf for a position on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, penned the letter alongside Leslie Davis, who oversees the hospital that provides Pitt with fetal organs and does more abortion procedures than any other in Pennsylvania.
Duquesne’s support of the University of Pittsburgh ran contrary to an October 2021 “Message to the Faithful” released by Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik after he met with administrators at Pitt.
In his statement, the prelate criticized studies that have used fetal tissue from elective abortions as embodying “the exploitation of human beings, valued not for their intrinsic worth but as commodities.” He implored Pitt to regard unborn children as “worthy of the same protection, dignity, and respect that all categories of persons are afforded.”
Zubik, who holds multiple degrees from Duquesne, would be wise to have a conversation with his alma mater about how the university’s recent decisions undermine the most vulnerable among us.
Ryan Navarro is a therapist in Pittsburgh who formerly interned and worked at UPMC.
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