Michigan medical students walk out over anti-abortion speaker : NPR

After receiving their white doctor’s coats, dozens of incoming medical students at the University of Michigan walked out in protest of a keynote speaker with anti-abortion beliefs.

Screenshot by NPR; Video: Brendan Scorpio


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Screenshot by NPR; Video: Brendan Scorpio


After receiving their white doctor’s coats, dozens of incoming medical students at the University of Michigan walked out in protest of a keynote speaker with anti-abortion beliefs.

Screenshot by NPR; Video: Brendan Scorpio

On Sunday night at the University of Michigan Medical School’s annual white coat ceremony, incoming medical students recited oaths, received their white coats – then dozens of them walked out.

At issue was the keynote speaker: Dr. Kristin Collier, a Michigan faculty member and primary care physician who has spoken publicly about her Christian beliefs and anti-abortion views.

In a video posted online, dozens of students can be seen walking out of the auditorium as Collier began her address. The video, recorded and posted by Detroit resident Brendan Scorpio, has been viewed more than 11 million times.

In an interview with NPR, Scorpio, who attended the ceremony to support a friend in the incoming medical student class, estimated that roughly 70 of the 170 incoming students walked out, followed by some friends and family “in solidarity.”

In total, he guessed, 35 to 40% of the audience took part in the walkout.

“The overall message that the students wanted to push was that reproductive rights, abortion, is health care,” Scorpio said. “Reproductive rights for anyone who is able to give birth are incredibly important and should be something that’s allowed to everyone in the country.”

In an emailed statement, the University of Michigan said that Collier was chosen for the keynote address through a system of nominations and voting by a medical school honor society.

“The White Coat Ceremony is not a platform for discussion of controversial issues,” the school’s statement said. “Dr. Collier never planned to address a divisive topic as part of her remarks. However, the University of Michigan does not revoke an invitation to a speaker based on their personal beliefs.”

The university remains “committed to providing high quality, safe reproductive care for patients, across all their reproductive health needs,” including abortion care, the statement said.

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College of Michigan Healthcare Faculty Pupils Stroll Out of White Coat Ceremony About Anti-Abortion Speaker

Dozens of incoming College of Michigan health care learners walked out of a White Coat Ceremony in protest more than their keynote speaker’s anti-abortion sights as the upcoming of abortion in the Wolverine State hinges on a Wonderful Depression-period legislation banning it.

In a viral video posted by Twitter person PEScorpiio from the ceremony to formally welcome the new healthcare school course, a slew of white coat-sporting students are noticed leaping out of their seats and exiting Michigan’s Hill Auditorium as Dr. Kristin Collier starts her handle. The protest in opposition to the assistant professor of drugs came just after a petition with around 340 signatures circulated contacting for a further speaker.

According to the petition, Collier has shared many anti-abortion posts on social media, together with 1 tweet in which she claimed her manufacturer of feminism concerned fighting for her “prenatal sisters.” The director of the University of Michigan Healthcare Faculty System on Wellness Spirituality and Religion, Collier also spoke at an April 2019 “pro-daily life feminism panel” hosted by the Notre Dame Office of Existence & Human Dignity.

“Keeping on to a perspective of feminism where just one fights for the rights of all ladies and ladies, specifically all those who are most vulnerable. I just can’t not lament the violence directed at my prenatal sisters in the act of abortion, completed in the identify of autonomy,” Collier wrote in a May well tweet, right before comparing abortion to “oppression.”

As of Monday morning, the movie of the protest before Collier’s speech—which did not revolve all around abortion—had 9.4 million views and was retweeted extra than 58,000 situations.

In a statement to The Each day Beast, a spokesperson for the school’s medical plan claimed Collier “was preferred as the keynote speaker for the 2022 White Coat Ceremony centered on nominations and voting by associates of the U-M Professional medical University Gold Humanism Honor Modern society,” which contains health care learners, dwelling officers, and college.”

“The White Coat Ceremony is not a system for dialogue of controversial challenges,” the school’s spokesperson extra. “Its target will often be on welcoming college students into the profession of drugs. Dr. Collier under no circumstances planned to address a divisive matter as element of her remarks. Having said that, the University of Michigan does not revoke an invitation to a speaker primarily based on their private beliefs.”

Collier did not right

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