medical students at the University of Michigan medical school walked out of
a white coat ceremony over the weekend.
The ceremony is a traditional event in which medical
students essentially introduced themselves to medicine.
This year's keynote speaker though at their event was dr christian collier
assistant professor who was known to hold anti abortion beliefs and
when she took the podium during the ceremony.
Watch what happened?
Yeah.
Mhm.
Thanks.
Good afternoon.
I'm quite honored to have been chosen as this year's white coat
ceremony speaker I'd like to extend.
In addition to being a professor, collier is also the director of the medical
school program on health, spirituality and religion.
She has shared several posts on social media expressing an anti abortion stance,
including messages on twitter in which she claimed her way of being a feminist
involved fighting for her prenatal sisters who have been subjected to what she
claims is the violence in the act of abortion, holding onto a view of feminism,
where one fights for the rights of all women and girls,
especially those who are most vulnerable.
I can't not lament the violence directed at my prenatal sisters in the act of
abortion done in the name of autonomy.
She wrote in May 2022 over 340 medical students signed a petition opposing
the choice of colliers.
The event's keynote speaker, according to a report by the michigan daily the student
newspaper together with 72 community members, including University of michigan
medicine's residence physicians, graduate students and alumni quote,
while we support the rights of freedom of speech and religion and
anti choice speaker as a representative of the University of michigan undermines
the university's position on abortion and supports the non universal theology
rooted platform to restrict abortion access, an essential part of medical care.
The petition reads, but the university reacted to its decision to have collier as
a keynote speaker of this event, telling Newsweek that it could not revoke
an invitation to a speaker based on their personal beliefs.
This is the second straight week in which a very prominent member of the University
of michigan family has been roiling the university over pro life stuff.
Last week it was head football coach Jim Harbaugh,
who spoke at a Right to life event in Plymouth.
Michigan Plymouth is not near the ann arbor campus, it is off campus.
Nonetheless, Harbaugh and his wife raised money for
pro life charities throughout the state.
Harbaugh said, quote, I believe in having the courage to let the unborn be born.
I love life, I believe in having loving care and respect for life and death.
My faith and my science are what drives these beliefs in me.
Harbaugh is a devout catholic full disclosure.
Again, I'm a proud university of michigan alum and
this one is tough because I believe very strongly and a woman's right to choose and
I believe the freedom of choice represents the best in humanity, represents,
progress, represents enlightenment, which is which which is what the University of
michigan is supposed to stand for.
On the other hand, jim Harbaugh is not in charge of campus medical services and
this professor collier, despite her personal beliefs about abortion, it has
not changed University of Michigan policy towards abortion or reproductive services.
One iota.
So I give some credit to my alma mater for trying to foster debate and
being inclusive of all points of view.
I do believe that university students particularly should be exposed to points
of view and opinions that are different from their own, but I also believe
very strongly the university students should engage in peaceful protests,
which is what they have done at this white coat ceremony for the medical students.
And surely there will be some protests in ann arbor this fall outside
michigan stadium by a lot of people think that coach Harbaugh should simply stick to
football and beating Ohio State if he can manage that and stay away from the issues
of our time that have to do with politics and policies including abortion.
Adrian your views about where the line is in terms of public, so
these are public employees, I guess.
I mean, they have every right to their personal views, but
there are also ambassadors of a public institution.
Okay, so first of all,
having that institution say they couldn't revoke the invite once they had sent it.
What they're essentially saying is because it's bad manners, they're trying to
stick to this whole decorum ideology that is the same part of the problem,
this whole white coat ceremony.
This thought that it's unprofessional for you to walk out.
What they're trying to do is trying to maintain the status quo.
And this is something that we hear from a lot of people in positions of power to try
to shame you for doing things that break this sense of what's professional, you
know, because we don't want you talking back, we don't want you speaking back,
we don't want you protesting in any way because, you know, it upsets decorum,
that's how the status quo loves to operate when it comes to serving the oppressed and
so to have the school say, we could not pull back the speaker collier is
just incredibly problematic and an absolute lie, an excuse.
And then on top of that to have this individual up here giving this speech in
some way.
Also just speaks to the ignorance of the moment.
The fact that you have so many medical care providers who are now in positions
where they cannot put their patient's health first.
Their oath is being jeopardized.
The things that they stand for.
The principles including pharmacists are going through this as well.
They are angry.
So having people walk out because the oath that they are going to swear to take or
have taken is now being jeopardized in a way where they can't
put individuals health first.
That is a damn good reason to protest as far as I'm concerned.
And they're lucky that those people simply walked out and
did not use their voice or something else to push back.
I agree 100%.
And I'm so glad that those students did walk out with their white coats,
that there were the 370 people who signed the petition.
Because I do also have some questions where the university really,
you really couldn't find somebody else at this time to actually deliver this key
speech at a white coat ceremony.
A white coat ceremony is a big deal.
I mean for people who get into medical school, this is a big event.
It's almost like a graduation, although it's not really a graduation, but
it's got that same sort of level of prestige and to try to force, I mean,
people who are literally committing their life to believing in science and
medicine and they have to somehow sit there and listen to somebody who's so
strongly antiabortion and
a guarantee that they're going to be some of these students who may be going to O.
B. G. Y. N.
Or whatever it is,
they will find very early in their career where they're going to deal with somebody,
a woman who's pregnant who's having an ectopic pregnancy, a pregnancy where
the uterus where the what's in their room is is literally not gonna make it.
And then the question becomes, okay, well I suppose you could wait for
this naturally to be expelled, but your life might be in danger.
Or let's go ahead and get have a procedure done.
So it's taken out cleanly.
And yet there's state after state that are saying, no, no.
Even women whose health and life might be in jeopardy because their pregnancy is
not going to make it because it's a miscarriage.
These states are saying to these women, I don't know, you can't get an abortion.
And then the doctors are now in a position of having to say, well, wait a second if
the state is going to restrict me from having performing this procedure on women.
Well, what do I do as as a doctor?
And so, I mean, Adrian, I got I got a friend who's actually on
the National board that certifies medical students in procedures like abortions.
And it's it's a real dilemma for
this national board because now they're having to deal with trying to decide
How do we certify doctors in States where the law says that they can't do this?
How do they know that the doctors are going to be able to practice and
actually be able to get the training and
be able to perform this technique which will save women's lives.
It is a very bad situation to be.
And especially because the vast majority of these laws and whatnot,
They are not based on science, but student science and very ignorant understanding of
how the body works and they are regressive and it's unfortunate because again, so
many people took the oath to preserve life there in this game as health
care providers, to ensure that people's health are protected and
ensure that life is preserved.
And so to take that power away from them and say, you have to wait and
watch someone suffer and potentially die before you can do something or
you risk losing your ability to be a health care provider, a medical provider.
That it's incredibly unfair.
It's wrong, and it really does reflect how regressive the United States has become.
I agree, very aggressive and I would say, look, I'm gonna have a lot of friends,
we're gonna say Schuster, we know you're a college football fan,
we know that you love the University of michigan.
What about Coach Harbaugh?
What does this do to the team?
The team, the team, the team as Bush and buckler famously said way back in the 19
seventies and eighties look up if that's a generation that's too old for you.
Football is about the team.
Football is about not creating distractions for your athletes,
whether you're a professional team, whether you're a college team or
their high school team, you don't want the drama of somebody who's getting arrested.
Somebody who's saying things out of context is criticizing a fellow teammate.
So in my view, when people say, what about coach Harbaugh?
How does he help the University of michigan football team,
He has not, he's actually hurt the team because I guarantee that they're going to
be players in that locker room who either have a girlfriend is pregnant or
a sister who gets pregnant or a mother has got an ectopic pregnancy, whatever it is.
And their position on abortion is going to be, no, no, this belongs to a woman to
decide when they look and see that there's their head football coach.
A guy who never should cross publicly,
is out there publicly defending restrictions on women's rights.
To me that harms the unity you're looking for in a locker room.
And I know Jim Harbaugh said, but
at halftime, I tell everybody you're here because you want to be here and
you have to stand by your positions and fight for what you believe in.
Well, that's fine.
But this is football.
A football locker room is not the place to have your political fights.
It's not to have the place, it's not the place to have your fights over issues like
abortion and other social issues of the day,
because then you start to divide your team and the moment your team is divided,
then you start to pile up the losses on the field because the players either
don't trust in one another or they don't trust in their coach.
So bad move by Jim Harbaugh.
Just in terms of coaching regardless of what his views are and
I respect the fact he's catholic.
His views are not new.
I get that and he can hold the views that he wants but has a football culture,
primary responsibility is to create a team to create unity.
And jim Harbaugh I believe has torn some of this down and
I think the repercussions are actually going to be more severe than a lot
of football fans might necessarily imagine this is not a good sign.
And by the way, coach Harbaugh was troubling enough for a lot of us and only
beating Ohio State once in 10 years and losing several years in a row to michigan
state, you're really pushing the button with us now coach Harbaugh do better.
So that's it, Adrian you ever thought, you know, it's just I think it's
interesting how people will push their religious principles and
views upon you as opposed to not doing that when it's not their job to do that.
And so I think that's very interesting how this man is making millions upon
millions of dollars and yet he still feels the need to push on other
the ideologies that he happens to hold out of his religious beliefs.
I just I think it's really irresponsible and just kind of sad, great and
he's like he was invited to the right to life fundraiser because he is the head
coach at the University of michigan, the winningest college football team in U.
S. History.
It's because he's at the university of michigan, they wanted him there, so
he is using his platform or the right to lifers are leveraging his being at that
platform in order to raise money.
That's my issue of Jim Harbaugh were a private citizen,
were not affiliate with the university, Fine, do whatever you want,
you want to coach the Minnesota Vikings as they wanted to go for it,
knock yourself out and then speak to right to life organizations.
But when you are hanging yourself up as I am the head coach of the University
of Michigan to me that's where actually going and
speaking at right to life fundraisers is a is a huge problem and divisive and
doesn't represent what this great university should stand for university.
That by the way it's so it's such a compelling university and they got 88,000
applications for an 11,000 spots which is unheard of for a public university.
A lot of folks are now describing Harvard as the michigan of the east
is something that we used to call it way back then.
But anyway, enough promoting the university of michigan