Staff Reports
This week’s House Education and Workforce Committee hearing put two of California’s top medical-school leaders on the hot seat. Representative Mary Miller asked a simple question: can a biological male have a baby? The deans at UCSF and UCLA didn’t give a straight yes or no. That dodge says a lot about where medical education and DEI priorities are headed.
Deans dodge basic biology — and voters saw it
At the hearing, Dr. Sam Hawgood, Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Steven M. Dubinett, Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, kept circling around a direct question. They talked about treating diverse patients and following the law. That’s one thing. Saying “the vast majority of pregnancies are in women” while refusing a plain answer is another. For parents and patients, clarity matters. You don’t want a future OB-GYN who avoids saying the obvious when biology is on the line.
Curriculum documents tell the story
Lawmakers didn’t pull this line of questioning out of thin air. Committee members quoted internal course guides and slide decks that urge students to use phrases like “pregnant people” and to “not assume gender identity.” Those are not social-media hot takes. They are materials used in classrooms training the next generation of doctors. Teaching empathy and clear communication is fine. Rewriting biology as a first principle is not.
Accreditation is the real lever
Representative Miller made a sharp point when she warned that medical schools abandoning scientific clarity could risk accreditation. Accreditation is not just a bureaucratic badge. Lose it and graduates can’t sit for licensing exams, hospitals won’t hire them, and federal funding disappears. That threat moved the hearing from spectacle to substance. Expect the committee to follow up with document requests and more oversight. If schools are putting ideology above clinical competence, federal watchdogs should act.
Why patients and taxpayers should care
This isn’t an academic fight for jargon points. These are the institutions that deliver babies, perform surgeries, and make life-or-death calls. Patients want clinicians who know anatomy, biology, and how to communicate clearly. If an institution trains students to tiptoe around basic biological facts, we all pay the price — in confusion, worse care, and lost trust. The hearing forced a needed moment of accountability. Medical schools should answer plainly — and restore focus on science and patient care, not political theater.
