The College Fix

‘UCSF’s initiative only furthers politicization of the medical field,’ doctor says

The University of California at San Francisco recently advertised several health care-related student internships that require support for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The requirement is still mentioned on the internship webpages, despite the University of California regents’ decision in March to end DEI statements for new faculty hires.

Two outside medical experts also told The College Fix that the requirement could limit students’ access to research initiatives in the medical field as well as ideological diversity in academia.

One internship through the public university’s Advancing New Standards In Reproductive Health program requires applicants to submit a written statement about their commitment to “diversity.”

The internship program is a part of the UCSF’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, a research-focused program, and the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences. It seeks three students in public health, demography, sociology, or related fields to help update its Abortion Facility Database in the summer and fall.  The application deadline is not mentioned.

Student interns will “conduct a systematic online search based on established methodology” and conduct “mystery calls” to abortion facilities to gather information about their services “not available online,” according to the job description.

The database is “an online map and data resource that contains information on over 950 abortion facilities in the United States … and provides a picture of the abortion clinic landscape at the state, regional, and national levels,” according to its website.

To be eligible for the internship, students must submit a “Contributions to Diversity Statement” that expresses the applicant’s “commitment to an intersectional framework,” according to the university website.

In the statement, students are supposed to describe their awareness of the “inequities and challenges faced by people of color or economically disadvantaged groups” and “commitment to socioeconomic and racial/ethnic justice.”

These internships represent the university’s interest in supporting abortion.

“With a second Trump administration, science becomes an even more crucial anchor in protecting abortion care and access,” UCSF public health Professor Ushma Upadhyay said in a recent post on the program’s X account.

A second set of internships through UCSF’s Division of Hospital Medicine also requires medical student to submit a “statement on your potential contributions to diversity.”

The summer positions include a “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Internship” and a “Joint Quality Improvement + Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Internship.”

The diversity statement is “optional” for a third “Quality Improvement” internship listed on the webpage.

The deadline to apply for these internships was in February, prior to the university announcement about ending DEI hiring statements.

The Fix contacted the university media relations office three times within the past two weeks, asking about the internships, but did not receive a response. The Fix asked how the university would balance promoting diversity values with ideological diversity and whether certain beliefs would disqualify applicants from participation in the internships.

One medical expert who spoke with The Fix said DEI statements mix politics into medical care.

“Unfortunately, DEI requirements that emphasize ideological conformity or political commitments are, by their design, exclusionary,” said Dr. Kurt Miceli, medical director for Do Not Harm, a coalition of medical practitioners that advocate for the exclusion of identity politics in medicine.

“UCSF’s initiative only furthers politicization of the medical field,” Miceli said. “Politicization in the medical field negatively impacts student access to research and advancement projects.”

A leading pro-life medical doctor also expressed concerns about the ideological requirement.

“It’s important that research institutions and medical schools consider the diversity of viewpoints and opinions that medical students and researchers may have on topics like induced abortion and that qualified candidates not be excluded simply because they don’t hold a certain political viewpoint,” Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs, said.

“We have increasingly seen academic and medical institutions stifle pro-life medical students’ and researchers’ work. This trend will hurt our ability to produce medical advancements that serve all people,” Francis told The Fix in a recent interview.

In recent months, a number of universities have ended DEI hiring statements and closed DEI offices in response to a Trump administration “Dear Colleague” letter that says such programs may discriminate in violation of Title VI. The letter warns that higher education institutions could lose federal funding if they promote discriminatory practices, The Fix reported previously.

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A medical doctor stands in front of a pride flag. Niyazz/Shutterstock

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