UNITED STATES: Myriads of students walk out of their school’s White Coat Ceremony. This incident took place at the University of Michigan Medical School, where students rushed out immediately after an anti-abortion doctor took to the stage.
The speaker is Doctor Kristin Collier who was invited to the event as the guest of honour. A video has surfaced over the Internet which shows, a large number of students leaving the auditorium as Dr Collier starts her speech.
Over 340 students had signed a no-concern petition opposing the selection of Dr Kristin Collier as the keynote speaker for their White coat ceremony. 72 members of the fraternity including Michigan Medicine residents, physicians, graduate students and alumni had also signed the petition.
According to the petition, “While we support the rights of freedom of speech and religion, an 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,”
Adding more to it, “This is not simply a disagreement on personal opinion; through our demand, we are standing up in solidarity against groups who are trying to take away human rights and restrict medical care.”
The entire clip is been shared over Twitter with a note, “Incoming medical students walk out at University of Michigan’s white coat ceremony as the keynote speaker is openly anti-abortion.”
The school dean did not agree to cancel the invitation given to Dr. Collier stating, “critical importance of diversity of personal thought and ideas, which is foundational to academic freedom and excellence.”
According to the university, Dr. Kristin was chosen by the Gold Humanism Honour Society for her medical excellence, and the White coat ceremony is not a platform to encourage political or religious beliefs.
ALSO READ: Five Indian Origin Women Makes it to Forbes’ List of America’s Richest Self-Made Women
