By In a blistering new report titled “Critical Condition”, advocacy group Speech First charges that America’s top public medical schools are imposing ideological conformity on future doctors—prioritizing political activism over clinical competence. Based on public records and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed at 54 medical schools nationwide, the group accuses institutions of compelling students and faculty alike to adopt controversial tenets of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), including race-based treatment guidelines, gender ideology, and so-called “weight inclusivity.”
According to the 40-page report, 99% of surveyed medical schools require some form of racial justice training, 89% mandate gender ideology compliance, and nearly one-third require adherence to a framework that treats obesity as a social identity rather than a medical condition. These requirements are enforced through admissions essays, revised Hippocratic oaths, clerkships, classroom speech codes, and even policies punishing students who fail to use “preferred pronouns.” At some institutions, dissent from these norms can result in professional retaliation or expulsion.
Speech First argues that the result is a chilling climate in which students self-censor and professors are evaluated not on academic merit but on their commitment to “anti-racist,” “gender-affirming,” and “weight-inclusive” practices. One faculty training at the University of California-San Francisco, for example, asks professors to document their efforts to promote “inclusive management” and “DEI in clinical activities”—criteria tied to hiring and promotion.
“This ideological tilt raises serious concerns not only about the future of medical education, but also about the quality of care that patients can expect. By embedding these perspectives into the curriculum, medical schools risk producing healthcare professionals who may be more attuned to social issues than to the scientific and clinical competencies required for effective patient treatment,” said Nicole Neily, president of Speech First, in a statement accompanying the report. “Curriculum should prioritize essential medical training to ensure that future physicians are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide high-quality care – NOT ideological conformity.”
The report details several high-profile cases in which medical professionals were punished for dissenting from DEI orthodoxy. Among them is Dr. Norman Wang, a University of Pittsburgh cardiologist who published a peer-reviewed article questioning the efficacy and legality of affirmative action. The university revoked his teaching privileges, barred him from working with students, and accused him of racism—before the journal retracted the article without his consent. Wang has since sued the university for violating his First Amendment rights.
A similar fate befell Dr. Allan Josephson, a child psychiatrist at the University of Louisville who publicly criticized gender transition treatments for minors. After speaking at a Heritage Foundation panel, Josephson was demoted and later dismissed. He is now pursuing legal action against the university, alleging violations of his constitutional rights.
Speech First contends that such examples are emblematic of a larger trend—one that recasts medical students as “agents of social change” rather than practitioners of evidence-based care.
In one striking example, the University of Connecticut School of Medicine updated its Hippocratic Oath to “reflect DEI ideology.”
According to the report, the revised oath includes commitments such as: “I will work actively to identify and mitigate my own biases so as to treat all patients and coworkers with humility and dignity. I will strive to promote health equity. I will actively support policies that promote social justice and specifically work to dismantle policies that perpetuate inequities, exclusion, discrimination, and racism.”
The report recommends sweeping legislative reforms: banning DEI-related graduation requirements, mandating that public medical schools prioritize science over ideology, and requiring orientation programs that teach students about free speech and intellectual diversity.
Speech First’s report is the latest volley in the escalating national debate over DEI in higher education—one increasingly centered not just on campus culture, but on the future of American medicine itself that could put the lives of patients at risk.
In 2024, reports showed that more than half of UCLA medical students failed standard tests in family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, and pediatrics. A professor also shared a concerning operating room moment where a student couldn’t name a major artery when asked.
These tests, taken after clinical rotations, are key for getting into residency programs. Normally, only about 5% of students fail these tests nationwide. But at UCLA, since 2020, the failure rate has skyrocketed, with some subjects seeing ten times more failures, according to data from the Washington Free Beacon.
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