Notre Dame newspaper wins defamation case regarding pro-abortion professor

A student-run newspaper at the University of Notre Dame has won a 2023 defamation case filed against it by Professor Tamara Kay. The newspaper, The Irish Rover, had reported twice on Kay’s efforts to help students access illegal abortion, and she filed a lawsuit against it.

Key Takeaways:

• In 2022 and 2023, student-run newspaper The Irish Rover reported on Notre Dame professor Tamara Kay’s efforts to help students access illegal abortions and find the money to pay for them.
• In May 2023, Kay filed a lawsuit against The Irish Rover, claiming defamation.
• The Irish Rover cited Indiana’s Anti-SLAPP laws, which protects defendants from lawsuits meant to stifle free speech on matters of public concern.
• In January 2024, a judge ruled in favor of The Irish Rover, ruling that the articles were factual and written without actual malice. The case was dismissed.
• Kay appealed but the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal in February 2025.
• Kay requested that the state Supreme Court take up the case, but that request was denied.

The Details:

According to The Irish Rover, on June 18 the Indiana Supreme Court denied Kay’s petition to transfer a previous decision by the state Court of Appeals in Tamara Kay v. The Irish Rover, affirming the St. Joseph County Superior Court’s original dismissal of Kay’s defamation claim in January 2024.

In that dismissal, the St. Joseph County Superior Court defended the newspaper’s reporting, calling it “true” and “not made with actual malice.” Kay was ordered to pay The Irish Rover’s attorney fees related to the case.

However, she appealed that decision to the Indiana Court of Appeals, which, in February 2025, unanimously affirmed the Superior Court’s decision, stating:

The trial court properly dismissed Dr. Kay’s complaint under Indiana’s Anti-SLAPP statute. Here, we agree with the trial court that the undisputed facts established that The Irish Rover’s two articles were written in good faith and that the alleged defamatory statements were not false.

Kay then petitioned for the case to be transferred to the state Supreme Court. In a statement signed by Chief Justice of Indiana Loretta H. Rush, the court said it had reviewed “all briefs filed in the Court of Appeals” and all materials “filed in connection with the request to transfer jurisdiction.” The state Supreme Court ruled 4-1 to deny Kay’s petition to transfer.

The Irish Rover has thanked its legal team and supporters following the legal win. “With the final and definitive dismissal of this baseless case, the editors wrote, “the journalistic integrity of The Irish Rover, as well as the honorable mission of the paper, is upheld.”

The Backstory:

According to the previous reporting by The Irish Rover, on Twitter (now X), Kay had promoted posts from “Abortion Finder” and “Catholics for Choice,” instructing students on how to get abortion pills through the mail or how to get reimbursed for abortion-related travel costs.

The newspaper also reported that Kay posted a note on her door that stated, “This is a SAFE SPACE to get help and information on ALL Healthcare issues and access — confidently with care and compassion.” Her non-Notre Dame e-mail address was included on the note.

She also posted the letter “J,” which Notre Dame professors were putting on their office doors as a symbol of their willingness to help students get abortions.

“We are here (as private citizens, not representatives of ND) to help you access healthcare when you need it, and we are prepared in every way,” Kay wrote on social media. “Look for the ‘J’, Spread the word to students!”

The Irish Rover published an article on her public social media posts offering abortion help to students in October 2022. It then published a second piece in March 2023, reporting on a campus talk in which Kay spoke about her advocacy for legalized abortion after Dobbs.

Kay then removed the signs from her door and sent an auto-response to emails that accused “white nationalist Catholics” of persecuting her. She filed the lawsuit against The Irish Rover on May 22, 2023, accusing the newspaper of making “false and defamatory statements” about her in its two articles. She said she has been “harassed, threatened, and experienced damage to her residential property” in addition to suffering both “mentally and emotionally.”

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]