INCOLN, Neb., March 12 (AP) — A doctor whose challenge to a state abortion law led the United States Supreme Court to overturn it told a judge today that the University of Nebraska wrongfully terminated his faculty position because of political pressure.

The doctor, LeRoy Carhart, performed abortions and donated fetal tissue to the university for research. After it was reported in November 1999 that the university was using fetal tissue in research, Dr. Carhart said, school officials told him they were under increasing pressure to have him resign or to terminate his unpaid position.

He said Dr. Howard Gendelman, director of the university medical center's neurological research center, told him the pressure came from the office of Gov. Mike Johanns, some members of the university Board of Regents and some legislators.

Dr. Carhart's testimony came at a federal court hearing on his request for an injunction ordering his reinstatement pending a trial on his lawsuit against university officials. No trial date has been set. He is also seeking unspecified damages.

Last summer, acting on a lawsuit filed by Dr. Carhart in 1997, the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to strike down a Nebraska law banning the procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion. The court said the law, similar to ones in 29 other states, imposed an "undue burden" on a woman's right to end her pregnancy because it lacked an exemption to preserve a woman's health.

Dr. Carhart, of Bellevue, says university officials violated his constitutional rights by terminating his position at the medical center because he challenged the law and because of an uproar over the university's use of fetal tissue for research.

David Buntain, a lawyer representing the university, denied that the termination was politically motivated.

Another university lawyer, Richard Wood, has said the medical center terminated 30 temporary faculty members last year, including Dr. Carhart, because their appointments were in departments outside their area of expertise. Dr. Carhart had been appointed to the department of pathology and microbiology.

Mr. Wood said that those 30 faculty members were told they could reapply to a position dealing with their area of practice and that Dr. Carhart did not do so.