What would Hippocrates think?

Each year, in the presence of their families, friends, mentors, and faculty, a superbly talented group of some 170 students is formally welcomed as the University of Michigan medical school’s newest class. This tradition, known as the White Coat Ceremony, marks their entry into clinical medicine with the formal presentation of the garment that represents their future as physicians.

And yet at this year’s ceremony, which took place Sunday in Ann Arbor’s Hill Auditorium, dozens of those students stood up and walked out during the keynote address of Dr. Kristin Collier, an assistant professor of medicine who happens to be pro-life. This was after a petition to remove Dr. Collier as the keynote speaker had failed. A video of the walkout on Twitter quickly collected more than 200,000 likes.

Incoming medical students walk out at University of Michigan’s white coat ceremony as the keynote speaker is openly anti-abortion pic.twitter.com/Is7KmVV811

— Scorpiio (@PEScorpiio) July 24, 2022

So much for “tolerance” at one of our nation’s elite universities, and for the tolerance of the Left generally.

Again, what would Hippocrates think? “I swear by Apollo Healer,” begins his namesake’s ancient oath, “and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.” The Hippocratic Oath also says this: “Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free.”

And here we ask: What greater intentional wrongdoing and harm, what more profound abuse of her body could a physician perform on a woman than an abortion?

To his great credit under the circumstances, the medical school’s dean, Dr. Marschall Runge, refused to disinvite Collier. Instead, he stressed “the critical importance of diversity of personal thought and ideas, which is foundational to academic freedom and excellence.”

Dr. Runge could’ve easily caved to the pressure, could’ve given in to the mob, but he didn’t.

“I want to acknowledge the deep wounds our community has suffered over the past several weeks,” said Collier as she began her speech. “We have a great deal of work to do for healing to occur. And I hope that for today, for this time, we can focus on what matters most: coming together to support our newly accepted students and their families with the goal of welcoming them into one of the greatest vocations that exist on this earth.”

If only the less tolerant among those future physicians had stuck around to hear these soothing words from Dr. Collier, who also directs the school’s program on health, spirituality, and religion.

A week ago, it was Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh who felt the wrath of his university and the Michigan community when he reaffirmed his conviction at a Right to Life event in the nearby town of Plymouth.

“In God’s plan,” said Harbaugh, “each unborn human truly has a future filled with potential, talent, dreams and love. I have living proof in my family, my children, and the many thousands that I’ve coached that the unborn are amazing gifts from God to make this world a better place. To me, the right choice is to have the courage to let the unborn be born.”

These are good and courageous words, coming as they do from the highest-profile and highest-paid employee of one of the nation’s leading universities. “I love life,” he continued. “I believe in having a loving care and respect for life and death. My faith and my science are what drives these beliefs in me. Quoting from Jeremiah, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart.’”

None of this is new for Harbaugh, a devout Catholic. Two years ago, during the height of the pandemic, he expressed similar sentiment during a podcast with National Review’s Jay Nordlinger, a childhood friend from their days growing up and playing ball in hard-left Ann Arbor.

“I don’t think it’s coincidence, personally, living a faith-based life,” Harbaugh said. “This is a message — this is something where, a time we grow in our faith. Having reverence and respect for God. You see people taking more a view of sanctity of life. I hope that continues — and not just in this time of crisis or pandemic. We talk about sanctity of life, yet we live in a society that aborts babies. There can’t be anything more horrendous.”

As for Harbaugh’s pro-life colleague, Dr. Collier, she seems to be a physician of exceeding grace. Before the White Coat Ceremony, she tweeted this: “Truly grateful for the support, emails, texts, prayers and letters I’ve received from all over the world regarding the event that will happen today. i feel so bolstered by it. and for my team that have carried me daily thru this — I love you.”

We think Hippocrates would be proud.

Updated with an embedded video of the walkout and additional information about Dr. Collier.