Oregon Walks Back Plan to Strip Doctors of Their Licenses for ‘Microaggressions’

The Oregon Medical Board appears to have walked back language in a proposed ethics rule that could have stripped doctors of their medical licenses for committing so-called “microaggressions.”

The board can currently revoke or suspend a physician’s medical license under Oregon law for “unprofessional conduct,” which includes behavior like fraud, willful endangerment of a patient and other clear violations of medical ethics. However, earlier this year, the Oregon Medical Board had proposed a rule that would expand the definition of “unprofessional conduct” to encompass behavior that included “microaggressions.”

The initial version of the rule stated that “discrimination through unfair treatment characterized by implicit and explicit bias, including microaggressions, or indirect or subtle behaviors that reflect negative attitudes or beliefs about a non-majority group” met the definition of unprofessional conduct.

The rule has its roots in the board’s 2023 “DEI Action Plan,” which called for “a new definition for unprofessional conduct that includes ‘discrimination in the practice of medicine/acupuncture,'” the Washington Free Beacon reported. 

Yet in the updated version of the rule posted on the Oregon Medical Board’s website July 15, 2024, the “microaggressions” language is nowhere to be found. The agency is collecting comments on the rule up until August 26, 2024 and holding a hearing on the rule that day.

“Discrimination in the practice of medicine, podiatry, or acupuncture resulting in differences in the quality of healthcare delivered that is not due to access-related factors or clinical needs, references, and appropriateness of intervention,” the new language states.

The change is a major victory for free speech and for doctors’ ability to freely treat their patients. By forcing physicians to navigate these legal tripwires and worry about whether their candid speech may be a microaggression, the Oregon Medical Board was creating circumstances that actually may have endangered patients by denying them valuable information.

“Physicians need to be able to speak frankly and honestly with their patients,” Do No Harm founder and Board Chair Dr. Stanley Goldfarb told the Washington Free Beacon about the initial rule. “If they believe that they can be sanctioned because they deliver bad news or make a comment that the patient misinterprets, this will lead to a chilling effect on speech and ultimately lead to deterioration in the patient-physician relationship.”

The Oregon Medical Board should not resurrect this regressive and dangerous language, and it made a wise decision by striking it from the proposed rule.