Universities are known for fomenting dissent in students who then challenge prevailing societal norms, but sometimes dissent and challenge come from an unexpected direction.
Consider the Future Medical Professionals for Life chapter at the University of Virginia, a recently formed organization that is exactly what it claims to be.
“We’re a little different than how most people view student groups,” said founder and president Gavin T. Oxley, who hails from Roanoke and is pursuing a double major in medical anthropology, ethics and care; and environmental science.
Oxley is involved in several student organizations and unsuccessfully ran for student government president in the spring.
“We’re a pre-medical, pro-life organization and we’re made up of pre-med, pre-nursing students passionate about protecting the right to life, especially since we hope to be taking the Hippocratic Oath at some time,” he said.
The oath, and similar oaths derived from it, are often taken by medical students upon graduation and revolve around the concept of doing no harm to patients.
People are also reading…
“We believe that abortion is not medically necessary and that physicians who practice abortions are not holding up their Hippocratic Oath,” Oxley said. “We’re a bipartisan group and we’re interested in having people of different political leanings in the group. We don’t believe it’s a political issue or that it should be a policy issue, but that abortion should be a human rights issue. There are groups like Democrats for Life and congressmen who are Democrats but support the pre-born, so it’s not about what party you’re in.”
The organization was formed in January after Oxley watched the Biden administration transition into power.
“I felt the political atmosphere was such that it was time to take specific action in light of the current federal administration being probably the most pro-abortion presidency we’ve had,” Oxley said. “In wanting to be a doctor, I also want to preserve my own conscience rights so that I don’t have to be forced to perform abortions or feel professional pressure [about abstaining] from performing abortions. I felt it was important to be involved now to protect my rights and those of the pre-born.”
Oxley met with fellow-minded students through social media. At times, the media was not all that social.
“I took a bunch of criticism, but I also had some brave people answer by email and say they wanted to be a part of it,” he recalled. “On the more critical side, there were comments like, how could I want to be a doctor if I don’t uphold bodily autonomy. Personally, I think I’m upholding a greater bodily autonomy by not taking unborn lives.”
Oxley said the group is not about sign waving and shouting.
“We want to have a conversation, first of all, whether or not pre-born are biological humans and whether they are philosophical persons,” he said. “There are some groups out there, and prolife groups among them, that are all about signs and screaming, but we don’t believe that’s how people change hearts or minds. Respect and civility and just having a conversation is the way.”
In the well-established tradition of UVa student groups, the Future Medical Professionals for Life set up tables on Grounds in hopes of changing minds.
“With COVID restrictions, we couldn’t be out too much. In April, when restrictions were eased, we did some tabling. We had some interesting conversations. We had some good conversations and some terrible conversations. We had one person come by who said abortion was just health care and we invited them over to have a conversation about it, but they just took off, flipping us off and calling us names,” Oxley said.
“What we wanted to do was have a conversation. We wanted to find out what other people thought, explain what we think and have a discussion,” he said. “We had people who talked with us and changed their opinions on abortions after 20 weeks because they learned about when viability starts and that there’s no reason to kill a child that can be independent outside of the womb.”
The effort won the health students the New Students for Life Group of the Year from the Students for Life of America.
“Within one semester of launching, Future Medical Professionals for Life has helped with the Pro-Life Future Campaign in Richmond, door knocking on over 1,000 doors in a single day,” the narrative for the award states. “The students hosted pro-life experts, worked with their local pregnancy resource center, and hosted multiple tabling events to discuss when human rights begin on campus. Although the group faced vandalization, they were undeterred from changing hearts and minds and hopes to help other local universities start similar pro-life student groups.”
Oxley said a lot of his friends disagree with his view. That, he said, is OK.
“It’s impossible to be at the school we attend without coming into contact with people who are pro-abortion. It’s also possible to have friends who are pro-abortion, and it’s important to have those friendships. You talk about it and once the conversation is over, you’re still friends.”
Most of the harsh pushback the group has had has come from social media posts, Oxley said.
“That’s probably because people are more confident when they’re behind a computer screen and have a sense of protection. They don’t have to sit and have a conversation,” he said. “I would say we are trying to promote an attitude of compassion toward people who agree and don’t agree with us. We’ve had a bunch of social media comments about they would take screenshots of our pictures and make sure we won’t ever have patients ever once we are doctors.”
Oxley said he and other members understand that their view is not necessarily shared by medical school administrators.
“One of the things people have talked about is how the medical schools see us when we are applying because we are doing this in a very public way,” he said. “We don’t intend to hide it, but some people are concerned that medical schools won’t accept us because of our views.”
Oxley said he knows that could be an issue.
“It’s something we have to deal with, but it really doesn’t matter what the schools think of us,” he said. “We’re doing what we believe is right and, if they turn someone down because of that, we probably don’t want to attend that school anyway.”
