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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 87
©2022 The Michigan Daily
N E W S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
STATEMENT... . . . . . . . . . . .4
MIC ........................ 5
O PIN IO N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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The current state and future of
abortion care at Michigan Medicine
What abortion access looks like at U-M
The Supreme Court’s June 24
overturning of Roe v. Wade ignited
rapid changes in state abortion laws,
with eight states having already
banned abortion and four more
expected to do so over the summer.
Abortion
remains
legal
in
Michigan due to a preliminary
injunction against the state’s 1931
law
criminalizing
all
abortions
except to save the pregnant person’s
life. The 1931 law was nullified by
the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision but
never officially repealed. In light
of the uncertainty surrounding
abortion access in Michigan, a
coalition of organizations created
the Reproductive Freedom for All
ballot initiative, a constitutional
amendment to protect reproductive
rights that received over 800,000
signatures in support.
The draft decision to overturn
Roe v. Wade was initially published
by Politico in May, after which the
University of Michigan announced
the creation of a “Post-Roe Task
Force” composed of individuals
across various areas and occupations,
including healthcare professionals,
legal representatives and students
and faculty working in relevant
research areas. The task force is
designed to mitigate the effects of a
potential abortion ban in Michigan.
Dr. Lisa Harris, a physician at
Michigan Medicine who provides
abortion care and a co-chair of the
task force, said this task force covered
a wide variety of topics that arose
when Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“There’s two broad buckets of
work that the task force is doing,”
Harris said. “One is campus work,
so thinking about all the ways in
which students and faculty and staff
across all the different campuses and
schools will be impacted. And the
second bucket is around clinical care
and treatment.”
Harris described the task force’s
sub-committees, which are working
to address individual issues, such as
which abortions Michigan Medicine
could still provide if the 1931 ban, or a
ban like it, were to take effect, as well
RILEY HODDER &
SAMANTHA RICH
Summer Managing News Editor &
Summer News Editor
SAMANTHA RICH
Summer News Editor
as clarifying Title IX protections and
student insurance policies.
Following the official overturning
of Roe v. Wade, Michigan Medicine
released
a
public
statement
reaffirming
its
commitment
to providing abortion care and
resources, so long as abortion
remains legal in the state.
“U-M Health remains committed
to
providing
high-quality,
safe
reproductive care for patients, across
all their reproductive health needs,”
the statement read. “This includes
abortion care, which remains legal in
Michigan while challenges to various
state-law criminal statutes continue
to proceed.”
According to Michigan Medicine,
many of the patients for whom they
provide abortions are experiencing
serious
pregnancy
complications
or underlying health conditions.
While they can provide outpatient
medication abortions in some cases,
they also outline various local clinics
such as the Planned Parenthood Ann
Arbor Health Center that do so more
often.
Over 340 incoming and current
University
of
Michigan
medical
students have signed a petition
opposing the selection of Dr. Kristin
Collier as the keynote speaker for
the upcoming July 24 White Coat
Ceremony, where incoming medical
students will receive their white
coats to mark their entry into the
field of medicine. An additional 72
community members — including
graduate
students,
alumni
and
Michigan Medicine residents and
physicians — have also signed on.
According to the petition, Collier
has shared multiple anti-abortion
posts on social media and made
comments expressing her opposition
to abortion in interviews. The petition
calls on the University to select an
alternative speaker, emphasizing that
student opposition to this speaker
selection goes beyond a difference
in opinion and subverts the values
of the University and the medical
profession.
“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,” the
petition reads. “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.”
Following the Supreme Court’s
overturning of Roe v. Wade in June,
the U-M administration and Michigan
Medicine
published
statements
affirming the University’s dedication
to reproductive healthcare. In their
statement, Michigan Medicine said
they would continue to provide all
necessary reproductive healthcare,
including abortion care, as long as it
was legal in the state of Michigan.
“U-M Health remains committed
to
providing
high-quality,
safe
reproductive care for patients, across
all their reproductive health needs,”
the statement read. “This includes
abortion care, which remains legal in
Michigan while challenges to various
state-law criminal statutes continue
to proceed.”
The petition calls on the University
to re-evaluate its choice of speaker
and select someone who better
embodies the values outlined in the
aforementioned statements.
“We demand that (the University)
stands in solidarity with us and selects
a speaker whose values align with
institutional policies, students, and
the broader medical community,”
the petition reads.
340+ UMich medical
students sign petition
opposing selection of
anti-abortion speaker
at upcoming white
coat ceremony
Current and incoming medical students
oppose the selection of Dr. Kristin Collier
Read more at michigandaily.com
Read more at michigandaily.com